Critical Contrast: Exagen (NASDAQ:XGN) and Grail (NASDAQ:GRAL)

Exagen (NASDAQ:XGN) and Grail (NASDAQ:GRAL) are both small-cap medical companies, but which is the superior stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their earnings, risk, valuation, profitability, dividends, analyst recommendations and institutional ownership.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

75.3% of Exagen shares are owned by institutional investors. 26.1% of Exagen shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations and price targets for Exagen and Grail, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Exagen	0	0	2	0	3.00
Grail	0	3	0	0	2.00

Exagen presently has a consensus price target of $7.00, suggesting a potential upside of 67.06%. Grail has a consensus price target of $16.00, suggesting a potential downside of 14.58%. Given Exagen’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, research analysts clearly believe Exagen is more favorable than Grail.

Profitability

This table compares Exagen and Grail’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Exagen	-30.36%	-92.58%	-33.74%
Grail	N/A	N/A	N/A

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Exagen and Grail”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Exagen	$52.55 million	1.41	-$23.69 million	($0.94)	-4.46
Grail	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A

Grail has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Exagen.

Summary

Exagen beats Grail on 6 of the 9 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Exagen

Exagen Inc. develops and commercializes various testing products under the AVISE brand in the United States. The company enables healthcare providers to care for patients through the diagnosis, prognosis, and monitoring of autoimmune and autoimmune-related diseases, including systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Its lead testing product is AVISE CTD that enables differential diagnosis for patients presenting with symptoms indicative of various connective tissue diseases (CTDs) and other related diseases with overlapping symptoms. The company offers AVISE Lupus that measures activation of the complement system by quantifying the level of B-cell C4d and erythrocyte bound C4d in the patient's blood; and AVISE APS, which consists of a panel of autoantibody tests that aids in the diagnosis and management of APS. In addition, it provides AVISE Vasculitis AAV, which utilizes a testing panel of individual analytes to provide physicians with results in the assessment and monitoring of anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic antibody associated vasculitis; AVISE SLE Prognostic, a panel of autoantibodies for assessing the potential for complications affecting the kidney, brain, and cardiovascular system; and AVISE Anti-CarP test, which identifies RA patients with severe disease. Further, the company offers AVISE SLE Monitor, a biomarker blood test; AVISE MTX, a patented and validated blood test; and AVISE HCQ, a blood test to monitor levels of hydroxychloroquine. It has a research collaboration and license agreement with Allegheny Health Network (AHN) Research Institute to develop novel patented biomarkers. The company was formerly known as Exagen Diagnostics, Inc. and changed its name to Exagen Inc. in January 2019. Exagen Inc. was incorporated in 2002 and is headquartered in Vista, California.

About Grail

GRAIL, Inc., a biotechnology company, focuses on developing technologies for early cancer detection. The company develops Galleri, a screening test for asymptomatic individuals over 50 years of age; and DAC, a diagnostic aid for cancer tests to accelerate diagnostic resolution for patients for whom there is a clinical suspicion of cancer. It is also developing minimal residual disease and other post-diagnostic tests. The company was incorporated in 2015 and is based in Menlo Park, California. GRAIL, Inc. operates as a former subsidiary of Illumina, Inc.