Head-To-Head Contrast: Nu Skin Enterprises (NYSE:NUS) and Niagen Bioscience (NASDAQ:NAGE)

Niagen Bioscience (NASDAQ:NAGE) and Nu Skin Enterprises (NYSE:NUS) are both small-cap consumer staples companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their profitability, earnings, risk, dividends, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership and valuation.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent ratings and recommmendations for Niagen Bioscience and Nu Skin Enterprises, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Niagen Bioscience	0	1	3	1	3.00
Nu Skin Enterprises	1	1	0	0	1.50

Niagen Bioscience presently has a consensus target price of $10.33, suggesting a potential upside of 238.80%. Given Niagen Bioscience’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, research analysts plainly believe Niagen Bioscience is more favorable than Nu Skin Enterprises.

Volatility and Risk

Niagen Bioscience has a beta of 2.09, suggesting that its share price is 109% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Nu Skin Enterprises has a beta of 0.98, suggesting that its share price is 2% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Niagen Bioscience and Nu Skin Enterprises”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Niagen Bioscience	$129.42 million	1.88	$17.38 million	$0.18	16.94
Nu Skin Enterprises	$1.49 billion	0.16	$160.20 million	($4.47)	-1.08

Nu Skin Enterprises has higher revenue and earnings than Niagen Bioscience. Nu Skin Enterprises is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Niagen Bioscience, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

15.4% of Niagen Bioscience shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 82.8% of Nu Skin Enterprises shares are held by institutional investors. 10.0% of Niagen Bioscience shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 2.8% of Nu Skin Enterprises shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

This table compares Niagen Bioscience and Nu Skin Enterprises’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Niagen Bioscience	12.39%	17.95%	13.17%
Nu Skin Enterprises	-15.73%	6.05%	3.45%

Summary

Niagen Bioscience beats Nu Skin Enterprises on 12 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Niagen Bioscience

Niagen Bioscience, Inc. is a global bioscience company, which engages in acquiring, developing, and commercializing proprietary-based ingredient technologies. It is pioneering research on nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD+). The company’s patent portfolio includes Nicotinamide Riboside (NR) and other NAD+ precursors, which are commercialized as the flagship ingredient Niagen. It operates through the following segments: Consumer Products, Ingredients, and Analytical Reference Standards and Services. The Consumer Products segment provides finished dietary supplement products that contain the firm’s proprietary ingredients directly to consumers as well as to distributors. The Ingredients segment supplies ingredients as raw materials to the manufacturers of consumer products. The Analytical Reference Standards and Services segment includes supply of phytochemical reference standards and other research and development services. The company was founded by Mark S. Germain and Frank L. Jaksch, Jr. in 1999 and is headquartered in Los Angeles, CA.

About Nu Skin Enterprises

Nu Skin Enterprises, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, engages in the development and distribution of various beauty and wellness products worldwide. It offers skin care devices, cosmetics, and other personal care products, including ageLOC LumiSpa and ageLOC LumiSpa iO; and nutricentials skin care products. The company also provides wellness products, such as LifePak nutritional supplements, ageLOC TR90 weight management system, and Beauty Focus Collagen+. In addition, it is involved in the research and product development of skin care products and nutritional supplements. The company sells its products under the Nu Skin, Pharmanex, and ageLOC brands through retail stores, website, digital platforms, and independent direct sellers and marketers, as well as a service center. Nu Skin Enterprises, Inc. was founded in 1984 and is headquartered in Provo, Utah.