Reviewing BeyondSpring (NASDAQ:BYSI) and Merus (NASDAQ:MRUS)

BeyondSpring (NASDAQ:BYSI) and Merus (NASDAQ:MRUS) are both medical companies, but which is the superior stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their dividends, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, valuation, earnings, profitability and risk.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent ratings and recommmendations for BeyondSpring and Merus, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
BeyondSpring	0	0	0	0	0.00
Merus	0	0	12	2	3.14

Merus has a consensus price target of $84.64, indicating a potential upside of 57.20%. Given Merus’ stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Merus is more favorable than BeyondSpring.

Valuation & Earnings

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

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
BeyondSpring	$1.75 million	51.84	-$11.12 million	N/A	N/A
Merus	$36.13 million	103.13	-$215.33 million	($4.08)	-13.20

BeyondSpring has higher earnings, but lower revenue than Merus.

Volatility and Risk

BeyondSpring has a beta of 0.17, indicating that its share price is 83% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Merus has a beta of 1, indicating that its share price has a similar volatility profile to the S&P 500.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

40.3% of BeyondSpring shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 96.1% of Merus shares are owned by institutional investors. 29.3% of BeyondSpring shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 4.6% of Merus shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

This table compares BeyondSpring and Merus’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
BeyondSpring	N/A	N/A	N/A
Merus	-506.73%	-35.99%	-29.83%

Summary

Merus beats BeyondSpring on 8 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

About BeyondSpring

BeyondSpring Inc., a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company, together with its subsidiaries, focuses on the development of cancer therapies. The company's lead asset is the Plinabulin, a selective immunomodulating microtubule-binding agent that has completed Phase III clinical trials for treatment of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC); and as an anti-cancer agent, as well as for the prevention of chemotherapy-induced neutropenia. It is also developing Plinabulin in combination with docetaxel vs. docetaxel alone for the treatment of NSCLC and epidermal growth factor receptor wild type. In addition, the company develops Plinabulin in combination with various immuno-oncology agents and chemotherapy or radiation, including; nivolumab, a PD-1 antibody that is has completed phase 1 clinical trials for the treatment of non-small cell lung cancer; ipilimumab, a CTLA-4 antibody for the treatment of extensive-stage small cell lung cancer; in combination with PD-1 or PD-L1 antibodies and radiation for the treatment of various cancers; and pembrolizumab, etoposide, and platinum to treat extensive-stage small cell lung cancer. Further, it engages in the development of three small molecule immune agents in preclinical stages; and a drug discovery platform to develop therapeutic agents from internal research and development efforts and from collaboration. The company was founded in 2010 and is headquartered in Florham Park, New Jersey.

About Merus

Merus N.V., a clinical-stage immuno-oncology company, engages in the development of antibody therapeutics in the Netherlands. Its bispecific antibody candidate pipeline includes Zenocutuzumab (MCLA-128), which is in a phase 2 clinical trials for the treatment of patients with metastatic breast cancer and castration-resistant prostate cancer, as well as in Phase 1/2 clinical trials for the treatment of solid tumors that harbor Neuregulin 1. The company is also developing MCLA-158, which is in a phase I clinical trial for the treatment of solid tumors; MCLA-145, which is in phase 1 clinical trials for the treatment of solid tumors; MCLA-129, which is in phase 1/2 clinical trials for the treatment of patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer and other solid tumors; and ONO-4685 that is Phase 1 clinical trial to treat relapsed/refractory T cell lymphoma. In addition, it has collaboration agreement with Betta Pharmaceuticals Co. Ltd for the research and development of stage bispecific antibody candidates include MCLA-129; collaboration with Incyte Corporation for the development of MCLA-145; and collaboration with Gilead Sciences, Inc. to discover novel antibody-based trispecific T-cell engagers. The company was incorporated in 2003 and is headquartered in Utrecht, the Netherlands.