Cronos Group (NASDAQ:CRON) and Lyra Therapeutics (OTCMKTS:LYRA) Head to Head Comparison

Cronos Group (NASDAQ:CRON) and Lyra Therapeutics (OTCMKTS:LYRA) are both small-cap healthcare 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 Cronos Group and Lyra Therapeutics, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Cronos Group	0	3	2	0	2.40
Lyra Therapeutics	1	0	0	0	1.00

Cronos Group presently has a consensus target price of $2.30, suggesting a potential downside of 30.93%. Given Cronos Group’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, research analysts plainly believe Cronos Group is more favorable than Lyra Therapeutics.

Profitability

This table compares Cronos Group and Lyra Therapeutics’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Cronos Group	39.08%	4.85%	4.62%
Lyra Therapeutics	-7,266.08%	N/A	-59.82%

Insider and Institutional Ownership

8.7% of Cronos Group shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 95.6% of Lyra Therapeutics shares are held by institutional investors. 7.8% of Cronos Group shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 3.3% of Lyra Therapeutics 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 Cronos Group and Lyra Therapeutics”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Cronos Group	$179.09 million	6.85	-$9.45 million	$0.20	16.65
Lyra Therapeutics	$400,000.00	0.89	-$28.92 million	($19.15)	-0.01

Cronos Group has higher revenue and earnings than Lyra Therapeutics. Lyra Therapeutics is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Cronos Group, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Risk & Volatility

Cronos Group has a beta of 0.94, suggesting that its stock price is 6% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Lyra Therapeutics has a beta of 0.58, suggesting that its stock price is 42% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Cronos Group beats Lyra Therapeutics on 13 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Cronos Group

Cronos Group Inc. operates as a cannabinoid company that engages in the cultivation, production and marketing of cannabis products in Canada, Israel, and Germany. It offers dried flower, pre-rolls, oils, vaporizers, edibles, and cannabis tinctures under the Spinach, Lord Jones, and PEACE NATURALS brands. Cronos Group Inc. was founded in 2012 and is based in Toronto, Canada.

About Lyra Therapeutics

Lyra Therapeutics, Inc., a clinical-stage biotechnology company, focuses on the development and commercialization of novel integrated drug and delivery solutions for the localized treatment of patients with ear, nose, and throat diseases. It's XTreo technology platform is designed to deliver medicines directly to the affected tissue for sustained periods with a single administration. The company's product candidates include LYR-210, an anti-inflammatory implantable drug matrix for the treatment of chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS), which is in Phase III clinical trial; and LYR-220 for CRS patients with and without nasal polyps. It has a collaboration agreement with LianBio Inflammatory Limited to develop and commercialize LYR-210 in mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Macau, South Korea, Singapore, and Thailand. The company was formerly known as 480 Biomedical, Inc. and changed its name to Lyra Therapeutics, Inc. in July 2018. Lyra Therapeutics, Inc. was incorporated in 2005 and is headquartered in Watertown, Massachusetts.