Contrasting Biostage (OTCMKTS:BSTG) & Aethlon Medical (NASDAQ:AEMD)

Biostage (OTCMKTS:BSTG) and Aethlon Medical (NASDAQ:AEMD) are both small-cap medical companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their profitability, institutional ownership, earnings, valuation, dividends, analyst recommendations and risk.

Profitability

This table compares Biostage and Aethlon Medical’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Biostage	N/A	N/A	-174.43%
Aethlon Medical	N/A	-160.36%	-115.74%

Institutional and Insider Ownership

2.0% of Aethlon Medical shares are owned by institutional investors. 15.3% of Biostage shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 1.1% of Aethlon Medical shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations and price targets for Biostage and Aethlon Medical, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Biostage	0	0	0	0	0.00
Aethlon Medical	0	0	1	0	3.00

Aethlon Medical has a consensus price target of $7.00, suggesting a potential upside of 949.63%. Given Aethlon Medical’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Aethlon Medical is more favorable than Biostage.

Risk and Volatility

Biostage has a beta of -1.02, meaning that its stock price is 202% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Aethlon Medical has a beta of 1.61, meaning that its stock price is 61% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Biostage and Aethlon Medical”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Biostage	N/A	N/A	-$6.07 million	($0.58)	-7.67
Aethlon Medical	$570,000.00	16.34	-$12.21 million	($2.82)	-0.24

Biostage has higher earnings, but lower revenue than Aethlon Medical. Biostage is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Aethlon Medical, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Summary

Aethlon Medical beats Biostage on 8 of the 12 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Biostage

Biostage, Inc., a biotechnology company, offers products to cure patients of cancers, injuries, and birth defects of the gastro-intestinal tract and the airways. The company's pipeline includes organ-regeneration technology for the repair or replacement of diseased or damaged organs, as well as product candidates to treat cancer, injury, and birth defects of the bronchus. Its lead product candidate is Biostage Esophageal Implant for the treatment of severe esophageal disease. The company was formerly known as Harvard Apparatus Regenerative Technology, Inc. and changed its name to Biostage, Inc. in March 2016. Biostage, Inc. was founded in 2009 and is headquartered in Holliston, Massachusetts.

About Aethlon Medical

Aethlon Medical, Inc., a medical therapeutic company, focuses on developing products to treat cancer and life-threatening infectious diseases in the United States. It develops Hemopurifier, a clinical-stage immunotherapeutic device that removes tumor-derived exosomes and life-threatening viruses and use in organ transplantation. The company was incorporated in 1999 and is based in San Diego, California.