Aurinia Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:AUPH) and Zealand Pharma A/S (OTCMKTS:ZLDPF) Critical Review

Zealand Pharma A/S (OTCMKTS:ZLDPF) and Aurinia Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:AUPH) are both mid-cap healthcare companies, but which is the superior stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, earnings, risk, profitability, valuation and dividends.

Profitability

This table compares Zealand Pharma A/S and Aurinia Pharmaceuticals’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Zealand Pharma A/S	58.86%	17.56%	16.17%
Aurinia Pharmaceuticals	100.84%	26.11%	19.89%

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent recommendations and price targets for Zealand Pharma A/S and Aurinia Pharmaceuticals, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Zealand Pharma A/S	0	8	1	2	2.45
Aurinia Pharmaceuticals	0	3	3	1	2.71

Aurinia Pharmaceuticals has a consensus target price of $17.75, suggesting a potential upside of 5.28%. Given Aurinia Pharmaceuticals’ stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Aurinia Pharmaceuticals is more favorable than Zealand Pharma A/S.

Volatility and Risk

Zealand Pharma A/S has a beta of 0.95, suggesting that its share price is 5% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Aurinia Pharmaceuticals has a beta of 1.6, suggesting that its share price is 60% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Zealand Pharma A/S and Aurinia Pharmaceuticals”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Zealand Pharma A/S	$1.40 billion	1.74	$977.29 million	$6.03	5.62
Aurinia Pharmaceuticals	$283.05 million	7.93	$287.20 million	$2.29	7.36

Zealand Pharma A/S has higher revenue and earnings than Aurinia Pharmaceuticals. Zealand Pharma A/S is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Aurinia Pharmaceuticals, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

36.8% of Aurinia Pharmaceuticals shares are held by institutional investors. 10.4% of Aurinia Pharmaceuticals shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Summary

Aurinia Pharmaceuticals beats Zealand Pharma A/S on 11 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Zealand Pharma A/S

Zealand Pharma A/S, a biotechnology company, engages in the discovery, development, and commercialization of peptide-based medicines in Denmark. It has a portfolio of medicines focusing on gastrointestinal and metabolic diseases, and other specialty disease areas with unmet medical needs. The company offers Dasiglucagon, a single use syringe or autoinjector for the treatment of severe hypoglycemia; and Dasiglucagon bi-hormone artificial pancreas systems containing insulin and dasiglucagon. Its pipeline includes Dasiglucagon that is in Phase III clinical trials for treating congenital hyperinsulinism. The company is also developing glepaglutide, a long acting GLP-2 analog, which is in Phase III clinical trials for the treatment of short bowel syndrome. The company was incorporated in 1997 and is based in Søborg, Denmark.

About Aurinia Pharmaceuticals

Aurinia Pharmaceuticals Inc., a commercial-stage biopharmaceutical company, focuses on developing and commercializing therapies to treat various diseases with unmet medical need in the United States. It offers LUPKYNIS for the treatment of adult patients with active lupus nephritis. It has a collaboration and license agreement with Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. The company was incorporated in 1993 and is headquartered in Edmonton, Canada.