Comparing ANI Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:ANIP) and Lifecore Biomedical (NASDAQ:LFCR)

Lifecore Biomedical (NASDAQ:LFCR) and ANI Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:ANIP) are both small-cap healthcare companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their earnings, profitability, risk, analyst recommendations, dividends, institutional ownership and valuation.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings and recommmendations for Lifecore Biomedical and ANI Pharmaceuticals, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Lifecore Biomedical	1	1	1	0	2.00
ANI Pharmaceuticals	0	4	4	0	2.50

Lifecore Biomedical currently has a consensus target price of $6.50, suggesting a potential upside of 47.73%. ANI Pharmaceuticals has a consensus target price of $105.83, suggesting a potential upside of 48.58%. Given ANI Pharmaceuticals’ stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe ANI Pharmaceuticals is more favorable than Lifecore Biomedical.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Lifecore Biomedical and ANI Pharmaceuticals”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Lifecore Biomedical	$128.87 million	1.29	-$40.50 million	($1.07)	-4.11
ANI Pharmaceuticals	$883.37 million	1.85	$78.34 million	$4.64	15.35

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

Profitability

This table compares Lifecore Biomedical and ANI Pharmaceuticals’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Lifecore Biomedical	-29.93%	N/A	-16.16%
ANI Pharmaceuticals	11.07%	27.37%	10.47%

Insider and Institutional Ownership

83.4% of Lifecore Biomedical shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 76.0% of ANI Pharmaceuticals shares are owned by institutional investors. 32.7% of Lifecore Biomedical shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 8.1% of ANI Pharmaceuticals shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Risk and Volatility

Lifecore Biomedical has a beta of 1.08, indicating that its stock price is 8% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, ANI Pharmaceuticals has a beta of 0.45, indicating that its stock price is 55% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

ANI Pharmaceuticals beats Lifecore Biomedical on 11 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Lifecore Biomedical

Lifecore Biomedical, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, operates as an integrated contract development and manufacturing organization in the United States and internationally. The company engages in the manufacturing of pharmaceutical-grade sodium hyaluronate (HA) in bulk form, as well as formulated and filled syringes and vials for injectable products used in treating a range of medical conditions and procedures. It also provides services, such as technology development, material component changes, analytical method development, formulation development, pilot studies, stability studies, process validation, and production of materials for clinical studies to its partners for HA-based and non-HA based aseptically formulated and filled products. The company was formerly known as Landec Corporation and changed its name to Lifecore Biomedical, Inc. in November 2022. Lifecore Biomedical, Inc. was founded in 1965 and is headquartered in Chaska, Minnesota.

About ANI Pharmaceuticals

ANI Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company, develops, manufactures, and markets branded and generic prescription pharmaceuticals in the United States and Canada. The company manufactures oral solid dose products; semi-solids, liquids, and topicals; controlled substances; and potent products, as well as performs contract development and manufacturing of pharmaceutical products. It markets its products through retail pharmacy chains, wholesalers, distributors and mail order pharmacies, group purchasing organizations, specialty pharmacies, and hospitals. ANI Pharmaceuticals, Inc. was incorporated in 2001 and is headquartered in Baudette, Minnesota.