Contrasting Rocket Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:RCKT) and Guardion Health Sciences (NASDAQ:GHSI)

Guardion Health Sciences (NASDAQ:GHSI) and Rocket Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:RCKT) are both small-cap medical companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their dividends, institutional ownership, earnings, analyst recommendations, risk, profitability and valuation.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current ratings and target prices for Guardion Health Sciences and Rocket Pharmaceuticals, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Guardion Health Sciences	0	1	0	0	2.00
Rocket Pharmaceuticals	0	1	8	0	2.89

Rocket Pharmaceuticals has a consensus price target of $52.29, suggesting a potential upside of 144.78%. Given Rocket Pharmaceuticals’ stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Rocket Pharmaceuticals is more favorable than Guardion Health Sciences.

Profitability

This table compares Guardion Health Sciences and Rocket Pharmaceuticals’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Guardion Health Sciences	22.79%	-73.69%	-48.17%
Rocket Pharmaceuticals	N/A	-54.47%	-47.99%

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Guardion Health Sciences and Rocket Pharmaceuticals”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Guardion Health Sciences	$12.23 million	1.14	$160,000.00	($4.02)	-2.70
Rocket Pharmaceuticals	N/A	N/A	-$245.60 million	($2.87)	-7.44

Guardion Health Sciences has higher revenue and earnings than Rocket Pharmaceuticals. Rocket Pharmaceuticals is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Guardion Health Sciences, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

20.2% of Guardion Health Sciences shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 98.4% of Rocket Pharmaceuticals shares are owned by institutional investors. 1.3% of Guardion Health Sciences shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 31.1% of Rocket Pharmaceuticals shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Risk & Volatility

Guardion Health Sciences has a beta of 0.8, indicating that its stock price is 20% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Rocket Pharmaceuticals has a beta of 1.1, indicating that its stock price is 10% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Rocket Pharmaceuticals beats Guardion Health Sciences on 9 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Guardion Health Sciences

Guardion Health Sciences, Inc., a clinical nutrition company, develops and distributes clinically supported dietary supplements and medical foods in North America, Europe, and internationally. The company offers GlaucoCetin, a dietary supplement to support mitochondrial function with additional antioxidants to help reduce oxidative stress and increase blood flow throughout the body for enhanced eye support and ocular health; and Lumega-Z, a medical food that replenishes and restores the macular protective pigment. It also provides Viactiv Omega Boost Gel Bites, an omega-3 fish oil dietary supplement. The company distributes medical foods products through e-commerce website, guardionhealth.com. Guardion Health Sciences, Inc. was founded in 2009 and is headquartered in Houston, California.

About Rocket Pharmaceuticals

Rocket Pharmaceuticals, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, operates as a late-stage biotechnology company that focuses on developing gene therapies for rare and devastating diseases. It has three clinical-stage ex vivo lentiviral vector programs for fanconi anemia, a genetic defect in the bone marrow that reduces production of blood cells or promotes the production of faulty blood cells; leukocyte adhesion deficiency-I, a genetic disorder that causes the immune system to malfunction; and pyruvate kinase deficiency, a rare red blood cell autosomal recessive disorder that results in chronic non-spherocytic hemolytic anemia. The company also has a clinical stage in vivo adeno-associated virus program for Danon disease, a multi-organ lysosomal-associated disorder leading to early death due to heart failure; Plakophilin-2 Arrhythmogenic Cardiomyopathy, an inheritable cardiac disorder; and BAG3 Dilated Cardiomyopathy. It has license agreements with Centro de Investigaciones Energéticas, Medioambientales y Tecnológicas, Centro de Investigacion Biomedica En Red, and Fundacion Instituto de investigacion Sanitaria Fundacion Jimenez Diaz; UCL Business PLC; The Regents of the University of California; and REGENXBIO, Inc. Rocket Pharmaceuticals, Inc. was founded in 1999 and is headquartered in Cranbury, New Jersey.