Bio-Rad Laboratories (NYSE:BIO) and Exagen (NASDAQ:XGN) Head-To-Head Contrast

Bio-Rad Laboratories (NYSE:BIO) and Exagen (NASDAQ:XGN) are both medical companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their profitability, institutional ownership, risk, valuation, dividends, earnings and analyst recommendations.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

65.2% of Bio-Rad Laboratories shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 75.3% of Exagen shares are owned by institutional investors. 30.3% of Bio-Rad Laboratories shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 10.4% of Exagen shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Bio-Rad Laboratories and Exagen”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Bio-Rad Laboratories	$2.58 billion	2.96	$759.90 million	$6.07	47.03
Exagen	$66.57 million	1.69	-$19.95 million	($0.89)	-5.25

Bio-Rad Laboratories has higher revenue and earnings than Exagen. Exagen is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Bio-Rad Laboratories, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current recommendations and price targets for Bio-Rad Laboratories and Exagen, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Bio-Rad Laboratories	1	3	1	0	2.00
Exagen	1	0	8	0	2.78

Bio-Rad Laboratories presently has a consensus price target of $303.33, indicating a potential upside of 6.25%. Exagen has a consensus price target of $9.25, indicating a potential upside of 98.07%. Given Exagen’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Exagen is more favorable than Bio-Rad Laboratories.

Profitability

This table compares Bio-Rad Laboratories and Exagen’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Bio-Rad Laboratories	6.52%	3.56%	2.49%
Exagen	-29.49%	-94.37%	-28.96%

Volatility & Risk

Bio-Rad Laboratories has a beta of 1.08, indicating that its stock price is 8% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Exagen has a beta of 2.02, indicating that its stock price is 102% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Bio-Rad Laboratories beats Exagen on 9 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Bio-Rad Laboratories

Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc. manufactures and distributes life science research and clinical diagnostic products in the United States, Europe, Asia, Canada, and Latin America. It operates through two segments, Life Science and Clinical Diagnostics. The company develops, manufactures, and markets instruments, systems, reagents, and consumables to separate, purify, characterize, and quantitate biological materials such as cells, proteins, and nucleic acids for proteomics, genomics, biopharmaceutical production, cellular biology, and food safety markets. It also designs, manufactures, markets, and supports test systems, informatics systems, test kits, and specialized quality controls for hospitals, diagnostic reference, transfusion, and physician office laboratories. The company offers its products through its direct sales force, as well as through distributors, agents, brokers, and resellers. Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc. was founded in 1952 and is headquartered in Hercules, California.

About Exagen

Exagen Inc. develops and commercializes various testing products under the AVISE brand in the United States. The company enables healthcare providers to care for patients through the diagnosis, prognosis, and monitoring of autoimmune and autoimmune-related diseases, including systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Its lead testing product is AVISE CTD that enables differential diagnosis for patients presenting with symptoms indicative of various connective tissue diseases (CTDs) and other related diseases with overlapping symptoms. The company offers AVISE Lupus that measures activation of the complement system by quantifying the level of B-cell C4d and erythrocyte bound C4d in the patient's blood; and AVISE APS, which consists of a panel of autoantibody tests that aids in the diagnosis and management of APS. In addition, it provides AVISE Vasculitis AAV, which utilizes a testing panel of individual analytes to provide physicians with results in the assessment and monitoring of anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic antibody associated vasculitis; AVISE SLE Prognostic, a panel of autoantibodies for assessing the potential for complications affecting the kidney, brain, and cardiovascular system; and AVISE Anti-CarP test, which identifies RA patients with severe disease. Further, the company offers AVISE SLE Monitor, a biomarker blood test; AVISE MTX, a patented and validated blood test; and AVISE HCQ, a blood test to monitor levels of hydroxychloroquine. It has a research collaboration and license agreement with Allegheny Health Network (AHN) Research Institute to develop novel patented biomarkers. The company was formerly known as Exagen Diagnostics, Inc. and changed its name to Exagen Inc. in January 2019. Exagen Inc. was incorporated in 2002 and is headquartered in Vista, California.