Comparing Neogen (NASDAQ:NEOG) & Avivagen (OTCMKTS:VIVXF)

Neogen (NASDAQ:NEOG) and Avivagen (OTCMKTS:VIVXF) are both medical companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their earnings, dividends, risk, institutional ownership, valuation, profitability and analyst recommendations.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings for Neogen and Avivagen, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Neogen	1	3	2	0	2.17
Avivagen	0	0	0	0	0.00

Neogen presently has a consensus target price of $10.67, suggesting a potential upside of 10.31%. Given Neogen’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, research analysts plainly believe Neogen is more favorable than Avivagen.

Profitability

This table compares Neogen and Avivagen’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Neogen	-69.93%	2.35%	1.46%
Avivagen	N/A	N/A	N/A

Insider and Institutional Ownership

96.7% of Neogen shares are held by institutional investors. 0.6% of Neogen shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 2.1% of Avivagen shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Neogen and Avivagen”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Neogen	$894.66 million	2.35	-$1.09 billion	($2.80)	-3.45
Avivagen	N/A	N/A	N/A	($0.04)	N/A

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

Summary

Neogen beats Avivagen on 7 of the 10 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Neogen

Neogen Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the development, manufacture, and marketing of various products and services dedicated to food and animal safety worldwide. It operates through two segments, Food Safety and Animal Safety. The Food Safety segment offers diagnostic test kits and related products to detect dangerous and unintended substances in food and animal feed, including foodborne pathogens, spoilage organisms, natural toxins, food allergens, genetic modifications, ruminant by-products, meat speciation, drug residues, pesticide residues, and general sanitation concerns; and AccuPoint Advanced rapid sanitation test to detect the presence of adenosine triphosphate, a chemical found in living cells, as well as provides genomics-based diagnostic technology and software systems that help testers to objectively analyze and store their results and perform analysis on the results from multiple locations over extended periods. The segment offers its products primarily to milling and grain, meat and poultry, prepared foods and ingredients, fruits and vegetables, seafood, dairy, beverage, water, healthcare, traditional culture media markets, food service, and dietary supplements markets. The Animal Safety segment provides veterinary instruments, pharmaceuticals, vaccines, topicals, parasiticides, diagnostic products, rodent control products, cleaners, disinfectants, insect control products, and genomics testing services marketed through veterinarians, retailers, livestock producers, and animal health product distributors, for the animal safety market. The segment offers its products for companion animal veterinarians; livestock producers, veterinarians, and breed associations; retailers; breeding and genetics companies; diagnostic labs and universities; distributors; and other manufacturers and government agencies. Neogen Corporation was incorporated in 1981 and is headquartered in Lansing, Michigan.

About Avivagen

Avivagen Inc. focuses on developing and commercializing products for livestock feeds that support immune function and help animals to achieve their growth and productivity. The company offers OxC-beta Livestock, a premix for inclusion in livestock feeds; Vivamune health chews for dogs; Dr. Tobias dog chews; and Dr. Tobias Beta blend for the human immune system. It serves in Canada, Mexico, Brazil, the Philippines, Taiwan, and Thailand. Avivagen Inc. was incorporated in 2005 and is headquartered in Ottawa, Canada.