Head to Head Review: Elanco Animal Health (NYSE:ELAN) & Cronos Group (NASDAQ:CRON)

Cronos Group (NASDAQ:CRON) and Elanco Animal Health (NYSE:ELAN) are both healthcare companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their earnings, analyst recommendations, valuation, institutional ownership, dividends, profitability and risk.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

8.7% of Cronos Group shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 97.5% of Elanco Animal Health shares are held by institutional investors. 7.8% of Cronos Group shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 1.1% of Elanco Animal Health shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Profitability

This table compares Cronos Group and Elanco Animal Health’s 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%
Elanco Animal Health	-3.96%	8.13%	3.99%

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings for Cronos Group and Elanco Animal Health, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Cronos Group	0	2	3	0	2.60
Elanco Animal Health	1	2	8	1	2.75

Cronos Group presently has a consensus target price of $2.30, indicating a potential downside of 28.13%. Elanco Animal Health has a consensus target price of $29.70, indicating a potential upside of 26.31%. Given Elanco Animal Health’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Elanco Animal Health is more favorable than Cronos Group.

Volatility & Risk

Cronos Group has a beta of 0.9, indicating that its stock price is 10% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Elanco Animal Health has a beta of 1.7, indicating that its stock price is 70% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Cronos Group and Elanco Animal Health”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Cronos Group	$146.59 million	8.05	-$9.45 million	$0.20	16.00
Elanco Animal Health	$4.71 billion	2.49	-$232.00 million	($0.41)	-57.35

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

Summary

Elanco Animal Health beats Cronos Group on 8 of the 15 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 Elanco Animal Health

Elanco Animal Health Incorporated, an animal health company, innovates, develops, manufactures, and markets products for pets and farm animals. It offers pet health disease prevention products, such as parasiticide and vaccine products that protect pets from worms, fleas, and ticks under the Seresto, Advantage, Advantix, and Advocate brands; pet health therapeutics for pain, osteoarthritis, ear infections, cardiovascular, and dermatology indications in canines and felines under the Galliprant and Claro brands; vaccines, antibiotics, parasiticides, and other products for use in poultry and aquaculture production, as well as nutritional health products, including enzymes, probiotics, and prebiotics; and a range of vaccines, antibiotics, implants, parasiticides, and other products used in ruminant and swine production under the Rumensin and Baytril brands. The company sells its products to third-party distributors; veterinarians; and farm animal producers, including beef and dairy farmers, as well as pork, poultry, and aquaculture operations. Elanco Animal Health Incorporated was founded in 1954 and is headquartered in Greenfield, Indiana.