Reviewing Aravive (NASDAQ:ARAV) & Eton Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:ETON)

Eton Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:ETON) and Aravive (NASDAQ:ARAV) are both small-cap medical companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their profitability, analyst recommendations, earnings, valuation, institutional ownership, risk and dividends.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

27.9% of Eton Pharmaceuticals shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 35.8% of Aravive shares are held by institutional investors. 14.9% of Eton Pharmaceuticals shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 60.4% of Aravive shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current recommendations and price targets for Eton Pharmaceuticals and Aravive, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Eton Pharmaceuticals	0	0	3	0	3.00
Aravive	0	0	0	0	0.00

Eton Pharmaceuticals presently has a consensus target price of $27.67, suggesting a potential upside of 112.49%. Given Eton Pharmaceuticals’ stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Eton Pharmaceuticals is more favorable than Aravive.

Profitability

This table compares Eton Pharmaceuticals and Aravive’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Eton Pharmaceuticals	-15.81%	-36.29%	-16.84%
Aravive	N/A	N/A	N/A

Volatility and Risk

Eton Pharmaceuticals has a beta of 1.37, suggesting that its share price is 37% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Aravive has a beta of 2.19, suggesting that its share price is 119% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Eton Pharmaceuticals and Aravive”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Eton Pharmaceuticals	$39.01 million	8.95	-$940,000.00	($0.15)	-86.80
Aravive	$6.99 million	0.42	-$76.32 million	N/A	N/A

Eton Pharmaceuticals has higher revenue and earnings than Aravive.

About Eton Pharmaceuticals

Eton Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a specialty pharmaceutical company, focuses on developing, acquiring, and commercializing pharmaceutical products for rare diseases. The company offers ALKINDI SPRINKLE, a replacement therapy for adrenocortical insufficiency in children under 17 years of age; Carglumic Acid for the treatment of acute and chronic hyperammonemia due to N-acetylglutamate Synthase deficiency; Betaine Anhydrous for the treatment of homocystinuria; and Nitisinone for the treatment of tyrosinemia type 1. It also provides Zeneo hydrocortisone autoinjector for the treatment of adrenal crisis. Eton Pharmaceuticals, Inc. was incorporated in 2017 and is based in Deer Park, Illinois.

About Aravive

Aravive, Inc., a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, develops transformative treatments for life-threatening diseases, including cancer and fibrosis in the United States. Its lead product candidate is batiraxcept, an ultrahigh-affinity, decoy protein that targets the GAS6-AXL signaling pathway, which is in Phase III clinical trial for the treatment of platinum- resistant recurrent ovarian cancer; and in Phase Ib/II clinical trial for the treatment of clear cell renal cell carcinoma and pancreatic adenocarcinoma. The company also develops AVB-S6, a soluble Fc-fusion protein to block the activation of the GAS6-AXL signaling pathway. It has a license and collaboration agreement with WuXi Biologics (Hong Kong) Limited to identify and develop novel high-affinity bispecific antibodies targeting cancer and fibrosis; and license agreement with 3D Medicines Inc. to develop products that contain batiraxcept as the sole drug substance for the treatment of human oncological diseases in mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau. The company was formerly known as Versartis, Inc. and changed its name to Aravive, Inc. in October 2018. Aravive, Inc. was incorporated in 2008 and is headquartered in Houston, Texas.