BioLife Solutions (NASDAQ:BLFS) & OmniAb (NASDAQ:OABI) Head-To-Head Review

OmniAb (NASDAQ:OABI) and BioLife Solutions (NASDAQ:BLFS) are both small-cap healthcare companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their profitability, valuation, dividends, earnings, risk, analyst recommendations and institutional ownership.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent ratings and recommmendations for OmniAb and BioLife Solutions, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
OmniAb	1	0	1	0	2.00
BioLife Solutions	1	8	1	1	2.18

BioLife Solutions has a consensus target price of $31.38, suggesting a potential downside of 10.54%. Given BioLife Solutions’ stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe BioLife Solutions is more favorable than OmniAb.

Profitability

This table compares OmniAb and BioLife Solutions’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
OmniAb	-115.12%	-16.59%	-14.82%
BioLife Solutions	53.29%	2.70%	2.49%

Volatility and Risk

OmniAb has a beta of 0.45, indicating that its stock price is 55% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, BioLife Solutions has a beta of 1.93, indicating that its stock price is 93% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares OmniAb and BioLife Solutions”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
OmniAb	$18.67 million	26.21	-$64.78 million	($0.36)	-9.39
BioLife Solutions	$96.21 million	17.81	-$4.59 million	$1.16	30.23

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

Insider & Institutional Ownership

72.1% of OmniAb shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 93.2% of BioLife Solutions shares are held by institutional investors. 9.8% of OmniAb shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 2.2% of BioLife Solutions shares are held by 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.

Summary

BioLife Solutions beats OmniAb on 12 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About OmniAb

OmniAb, Inc., a biotechnology company, engages in the discovery and provision of therapeutic antibody discovery technologies in the United States. The company's technology platform creates and screens diverse antibody repertoires and identify optimal antibodies for partners' drug development efforts. Its OmniAb platform is the biological intelligence of proprietary transgenic animals, including OmniRat, OmniChicken, and OmniMouse that have been genetically modified to generate antibodies with human sequences to facilitate development of human therapeutic candidates. The company's OmniFlic, a bispecific rat, and OmniClic, a bispecific chicken, designed for discovery of bispecific antibody applications; OmniTaur, which provides unique structural characteristics of cow antibodies for complex targets; and OmniDeep, a suite of in silico, an AI and machine learning tools for therapeutic discovery and optimization through various technologies and capabilities. OmniAb, Inc. was founded in 2012 and is headquartered in Emeryville, California.

About BioLife Solutions

BioLife Solutions, Inc. develops, manufactures, and markets bioproduction tools and services for the cell and gene therapy (CGT) industry in the United States, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and internationally. The company’s products are used in the basic and applied research, and commercial manufacturing of biologic-based therapies. It offers proprietary biopreservation media products, including HypoThermosol FRS and CryoStor Freeze Media that are formulated to mitigate preservation-induced, delayed-onset cell damage and death; bioproduction tools, such as human platelet lysates for cell expansion and CellSeal closed system vials that are used in CGT; and the ThawSTAR line that comprises of a family of automated thawing devices for frozen cell and gene therapies packaged in cryovials and cryobags. The company also provides cryogenic freezer technology for controlled rate freezing and cryogenic storage of biologic materials; ultra-low temperature mechanical freezers; evo shipping containers that are cloud-connected passive storage and transport containers for temperature-sensitive biologics and pharmaceuticals; liquid nitrogen laboratory freezers, cryogenic equipment, and accessories; and biological and pharmaceutical storage and transport services. It markets and sells its products directly, as well as through third party distributors. The company was incorporated in 1987 and is headquartered in Bothell, Washington.