Madrigal Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:MDGL) versus SCYNEXIS (NASDAQ:SCYX) Critical Analysis

SCYNEXIS (NASDAQ:SCYX) and Madrigal Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:MDGL) are both medical companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their risk, analyst recommendations, earnings, valuation, profitability, dividends and institutional ownership.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations for SCYNEXIS and Madrigal Pharmaceuticals, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
SCYNEXIS	0	0	1	0	3.00
Madrigal Pharmaceuticals	1	2	10	0	2.69

Madrigal Pharmaceuticals has a consensus price target of $347.33, suggesting a potential upside of 9.06%. Given Madrigal Pharmaceuticals’ higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Madrigal Pharmaceuticals is more favorable than SCYNEXIS.

Volatility and Risk

SCYNEXIS has a beta of 1.5, indicating that its share price is 50% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Madrigal Pharmaceuticals has a beta of -0.42, indicating that its share price is 142% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares SCYNEXIS and Madrigal Pharmaceuticals”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
SCYNEXIS	$8.57 million	5.63	$67.04 million	($0.74)	-1.72
Madrigal Pharmaceuticals	$76.81 million	90.43	-$373.63 million	($25.08)	-12.70

SCYNEXIS has higher earnings, but lower revenue than Madrigal Pharmaceuticals. Madrigal Pharmaceuticals is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than SCYNEXIS, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

This table compares SCYNEXIS and Madrigal Pharmaceuticals’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
SCYNEXIS	-425.41%	-66.21%	-38.84%
Madrigal Pharmaceuticals	N/A	-71.78%	-53.25%

Institutional and Insider Ownership

54.4% of SCYNEXIS shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 98.5% of Madrigal Pharmaceuticals shares are owned by institutional investors. 2.9% of SCYNEXIS shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 22.8% of Madrigal Pharmaceuticals 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.

About SCYNEXIS

SCYNEXIS, Inc., a biotechnology company, develops medicines to overcome and prevent difficult-to-treat and drug-resistant infections in the United States. It offers BREXAFEMME for the treatment of patients with vulvovaginal candidiasis (VVC) and recurrent VVC. The company's lead product candidate is Ibrexafungerp, an intravenous drug for the treatment of invasive candidiasis and/or candidemia, refractory invasive fungal infections, invasive aspergillosis, VVC, and recurrent VVC. It also develops SCY-247 to treat systemic fungal diseases. The company has licensing and collaboration agreements with GlaxoSmithKline Intellectual Property (No. 3) Limited, Merck Sharp & Dohme Corp., Hansoh (Shanghai) Health Technology Co., Ltd., Jiangsu Hansoh Pharmaceutical Group Company Limited, and R-Pharm, CJSC for the development, manufacture, and commercialization of ibrexafungerp. SCYNEXIS, Inc. was formerly known as SCYNEXIS Chemistry & Automation, Inc. and changed its name to SCYNEXIS, Inc. in June 2002. The company was incorporated in 1999 and is headquartered in Jersey City, New Jersey.

About Madrigal Pharmaceuticals

Madrigal Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, focuses on the development of therapeutics for the treatment of non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) in the United States. Its lead product candidate is resmetirom, a liver-directed thyroid hormone receptor beta agonist, which is in Phase 3 clinical trials for treating NASH. The company is headquartered in West Conshohocken, Pennsylvania.