Critical Review: NRx Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:NRXP) & Elanco Animal Health (NYSE:ELAN)

Elanco Animal Health (NYSE:ELAN) and NRx Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:NRXP) are both healthcare companies, but which is the superior stock? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their earnings, valuation, analyst recommendations, risk, dividends, institutional ownership and profitability.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

97.5% of Elanco Animal Health shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 4.3% of NRx Pharmaceuticals shares are held by institutional investors. 1.1% of Elanco Animal Health shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 6.4% of NRx Pharmaceuticals shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

This table compares Elanco Animal Health and NRx Pharmaceuticals’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Elanco Animal Health	-3.96%	8.13%	3.99%
NRx Pharmaceuticals	-691.81%	N/A	-63.92%

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Elanco Animal Health and NRx Pharmaceuticals”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Elanco Animal Health	$5.02 billion	2.21	-$232.00 million	($0.41)	-54.18
NRx Pharmaceuticals	$1.23 million	102.09	-$28.62 million	($0.55)	-5.27

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

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current ratings and recommmendations for Elanco Animal Health and NRx Pharmaceuticals, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Elanco Animal Health	1	2	8	1	2.75
NRx Pharmaceuticals	2	0	5	0	2.43

Elanco Animal Health currently has a consensus price target of $29.70, suggesting a potential upside of 33.71%. NRx Pharmaceuticals has a consensus price target of $34.50, suggesting a potential upside of 1,089.66%. Given NRx Pharmaceuticals’ higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe NRx Pharmaceuticals is more favorable than Elanco Animal Health.

Volatility and Risk

Elanco Animal Health has a beta of 1.71, indicating that its stock price is 71% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, NRx Pharmaceuticals has a beta of 2.07, indicating that its stock price is 107% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Elanco Animal Health beats NRx Pharmaceuticals on 9 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Elanco Animal Health

Elanco Animal Health Incorporated, an animal health company, innovates, develops, manufactures, and markets products for pets and farm animals. It offers pet health disease prevention products, such as parasiticide and vaccine products that protect pets from worms, fleas, and ticks under the Seresto, Advantage, Advantix, and Advocate brands; pet health therapeutics for pain, osteoarthritis, ear infections, cardiovascular, and dermatology indications in canines and felines under the Galliprant and Claro brands; vaccines, antibiotics, parasiticides, and other products for use in poultry and aquaculture production, as well as nutritional health products, including enzymes, probiotics, and prebiotics; and a range of vaccines, antibiotics, implants, parasiticides, and other products used in ruminant and swine production under the Rumensin and Baytril brands. The company sells its products to third-party distributors; veterinarians; and farm animal producers, including beef and dairy farmers, as well as pork, poultry, and aquaculture operations. Elanco Animal Health Incorporated was founded in 1954 and is headquartered in Greenfield, Indiana.

About NRx Pharmaceuticals

NRx Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a clinical-stage bio-pharmaceutical company, develops novel therapeutics for the treatment of central nervous system disorders, including suicidal depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, and chronic pain. Its products include NRX-101 (D-cycloserine/Lurasidone), an oral, fixed dosed combination of D-cycloserine and lurasidone that earned food and drug administration-designated breakthrough therapy for suicidal treatment-resistant bipolar depression; and NRX-100 (ketamine), which has been awarded FDA fast track designation for the treatment of severe bipolar depression with acute suicidal ideation and behavior. The company has a partnership with Alvogen Inc. and Lotus Pharmaceutical Company; development and manufacturing agreement with Nephron Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and Alcami; license agreement with Apkarian Technologies; development and license agreement with Glytech; license agreement with Sarah Herzog Memorial Hospital. The company was founded in 2015 and is based in Wilmington, Delaware.