Exelixis (NASDAQ:EXEL) and Pyxis Oncology (NASDAQ:PYXS) Critical Survey

Exelixis (NASDAQ:EXEL) and Pyxis Oncology (NASDAQ:PYXS) are both healthcare companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, dividends, institutional ownership, profitability, risk, valuation and earnings.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations and price targets for Exelixis and Pyxis Oncology, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Exelixis	1	12	6	1	2.35
Pyxis Oncology	1	1	8	0	2.70

Exelixis presently has a consensus price target of $51.50, indicating a potential downside of 20.56%. Pyxis Oncology has a consensus price target of $8.75, indicating a potential upside of 422.39%. Given Pyxis Oncology’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Pyxis Oncology is more favorable than Exelixis.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Exelixis and Pyxis Oncology”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Exelixis	$2.32 billion	6.92	$782.57 million	$3.18	20.39
Pyxis Oncology	$13.86 million	10.08	-$79.62 million	($1.41)	-1.19

Exelixis has higher revenue and earnings than Pyxis Oncology. Pyxis Oncology is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Exelixis, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

This table compares Exelixis and Pyxis Oncology’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Exelixis	35.33%	42.17%	31.76%
Pyxis Oncology	N/A	-215.23%	-112.19%

Insider and Institutional Ownership

85.3% of Exelixis shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 39.1% of Pyxis Oncology shares are owned by institutional investors. 2.6% of Exelixis shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 5.7% of Pyxis Oncology shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Risk and Volatility

Exelixis has a beta of 0.47, meaning that its stock price is 53% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Pyxis Oncology has a beta of 1.37, meaning that its stock price is 37% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Exelixis beats Pyxis Oncology on 9 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Exelixis

Exelixis, Inc., an oncology company, focuses on the discovery, development, and commercialization of new medicines for difficult-to-treat cancers in the United States. The company offers CABOMETYX tablets for the treatment of patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma who received prior anti-angiogenic therapy; and COMETRIQ capsules for the treatment of progressive and metastatic medullary thyroid cancer. Its CABOMETYX and COMETRIQ are derived from cabozantinib, an inhibitor of multiple tyrosine kinases, including MET, AXL, RET, and VEGF receptors. The company also offers COTELLIC, an inhibitor of MEK as a combination regimen to treat specific forms of advanced melanoma; and MINNEBRO, an oral non-steroidal selective blocker of the mineralocorticoid receptor for the treatment of hypertension in Japan. It develops zanzalintinib, a novel, potent, next-generation oral tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) that targets VEGF receptors, MET and the TAM kinases (TYRO3, AXL and MER); and XB002, a next-generation tissue factor (TF)-targeting ADC, administered via intravenous infusion and composed of a human monoclonal antibody (mAb) against TF that is conjugated to an auristatin-based microtubulin inhibitor (MTI) payload. It has research collaborations and license agreements with Ipsen Pharma SAS; Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Ltd.; F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd.; Redwood Bioscience, Inc.; R.P. Scherer Technologies, LLC; Catalent Pharma Solutions, Inc.; NBE Therapeutics AG; Aurigene Discovery Technologies Limited; Iconic Therapeutics, Inc.; Invenra, Inc.; StemSynergy Therapeutics, Inc.; Genentech, Inc.; Bristol-Myers Squibb Company; and Daiichi Sankyo Company, Limited, as well as clinical development agreement with Sairopa B.V. for ADU-1805. The company was formerly known as Exelixis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and changed its name to Exelixis, Inc. in February 2000. Exelixis, Inc. was incorporated in 1994 and is headquartered in Alameda, California.

About Pyxis Oncology

Pyxis Oncology, Inc., a clinical stage company, engages in the development of therapeutics to treat cancers. Its lead antibody-drug conjugates (ADC) product candidate is PYX-201, an investigational novel ADC consisting of human immunoglobulin G1 (IgG1), which is in Phase 1 clinical trial to treat patients with relapsed or refractory solid tumors; and lead immuno-oncology (IO) product candidate is PYX-106, an investigational fully human IgG1 Siglec-15-targeting antibody that is in Phase 1 clinical trial to treat patients with advanced solid tumors. The company is also developing PYX-107, a CD40 agonist with demonstrated anti-cancer activity in patients who previously progressed on PD-(L)1 inhibitors, which is in Phase 2 clinical trial for the treatment of solid tumors, such as soft tissue sarcomas, esophageal and gastroesophageal junction, cancers, and melanoma in combination with chemotherapy, radiation therapy, and immunotherapy. It has in-license agreement with Pfizer Inc. to develop and commercialize ADC product candidates directed to certain licensed targets, including PYX-201 and PYX-203, and products containing the ADC product candidates; and Biosion USA, Inc. for development, manufacture, and commercialization of PYX-106, an IO product candidate. Pyxis Oncology, Inc. was incorporated in 2018 and is headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts.