Contrasting Savara (NASDAQ:SVRA) & Enanta Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:ENTA)

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

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent ratings for Savara and Enanta Pharmaceuticals, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Savara	1	1	6	1	2.78
Enanta Pharmaceuticals	1	0	6	0	2.71

Savara presently has a consensus price target of $8.86, indicating a potential upside of 48.36%. Enanta Pharmaceuticals has a consensus price target of $20.33, indicating a potential upside of 41.11%. Given Savara’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, research analysts plainly believe Savara is more favorable than Enanta Pharmaceuticals.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

87.9% of Savara shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 95.0% of Enanta Pharmaceuticals shares are held by institutional investors. 5.3% of Savara shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 11.5% of Enanta Pharmaceuticals shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Volatility and Risk

Savara has a beta of 0.34, meaning that its stock price is 66% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Enanta Pharmaceuticals has a beta of 0.98, meaning that its stock price is 2% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Savara and Enanta Pharmaceuticals”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Savara	N/A	N/A	-$95.88 million	($0.53)	-11.26
Enanta Pharmaceuticals	$65.32 million	6.40	-$81.89 million	($3.20)	-4.50

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

Profitability

This table compares Savara and Enanta Pharmaceuticals’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Savara	N/A	-86.60%	-65.44%
Enanta Pharmaceuticals	-106.80%	-78.58%	-23.18%

Summary

Enanta Pharmaceuticals beats Savara on 8 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Savara

Savara Inc., formerly Mast Therapeutics, Inc., is a clinical-stage pharmaceutical company. The Company is focused on the development and commercialization of novel therapies for the treatment of patients with rare respiratory diseases. Its pipeline includes AeroVanc, Molgradex and AIR001. AeroVanc is an inhaled formulation of vancomycin, which the Company is developing for the treatment of persistent methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, lung infection in cystic fibrosis patients. Molgradex is an inhaled formulation of recombinant human granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor. It is developing Molgradex for the treatment of autoimmune pulmonary alveolar proteinosis, a rare lung disease. AIR001 is a sodium nitrite solution for inhalation via nebulization. AIR001 is in Phase II clinical development for the treatment of heart failure with preserved ejection fraction, also known as diastolic heart failure or heart failure with preserved systolic function.

About Enanta Pharmaceuticals

Enanta Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a biotechnology company, discovers and develops small molecule drugs for the treatment of viral infections and liver diseases. Its product pipeline comprises EDP-514, which is in phase 1b clinical development for the treatment of chronic infection with hepatitis B virus or HBV; EDP-938 and EDP-323, which is in phase II clinical development for the treatment of respiratory syncytial virus; EDP-235, which is in phase II clinical development for the treatment of human coronaviruses; and Glecaprevir, which is in the market for the treatment of chronic infection with hepatitis C virus or HCV. The company has a collaborative development and license agreement with Abbott Laboratories to develop, manufacture, and commercialize HCV NS3 and NS3/4A protease inhibitor compounds, including paritaprevir and glecaprevir. Enanta Pharmaceuticals, Inc. was incorporated in 1995 and is headquartered in Watertown, Massachusetts.