Guardant Health (NASDAQ:GH) and Exagen (NASDAQ:XGN) are both medical companies, but which is the superior stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their valuation, risk, profitability, institutional ownership, dividends, earnings and analyst recommendations.
Profitability
This table compares Guardant Health and Exagen’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.
| Net Margins | Return on Equity | Return on Assets | |
| Guardant Health | -67.14% | -19.22% | -16.37% |
| Exagen | -39.49% | -29.10% | -17.88% |
Earnings & Valuation
This table compares Guardant Health and Exagen’s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.
| Gross Revenue | Price/Sales Ratio | Net Income | Earnings Per Share | Price/Earnings Ratio | |
| Guardant Health | $214.38 million | 54.51 | -$75.65 million | ($0.84) | -137.57 |
| Exagen | $40.39 million | 4.25 | -$12.04 million | ($8.46) | -1.60 |
Exagen has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Guardant Health. Guardant Health is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Exagen, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Analyst Recommendations
This is a summary of current ratings for Guardant Health and Exagen, as reported by MarketBeat.com.
| Sell Ratings | Hold Ratings | Buy Ratings | Strong Buy Ratings | Rating Score | |
| Guardant Health | 0 | 0 | 9 | 0 | 3.00 |
| Exagen | 0 | 0 | 6 | 0 | 3.00 |
Guardant Health currently has a consensus target price of $170.50, indicating a potential upside of 47.54%. Exagen has a consensus target price of $24.40, indicating a potential upside of 80.21%. Given Exagen’s higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Exagen is more favorable than Guardant Health.
Insider and Institutional Ownership
84.9% of Guardant Health shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 29.2% of Exagen shares are held by institutional investors. 13.0% of Guardant Health shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 48.9% of Exagen shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.
Summary
Guardant Health beats Exagen on 7 of the 12 factors compared between the two stocks.
About Guardant Health
Guardant Health, Inc., a precision oncology company, provides blood tests, data sets, and analytics in the United States and internationally. The company offers Guardant360, Guardant360 CDx, and GuardantOMNI liquid biopsy-based tests for advanced stage cancer; and GuardantINFORM, an in-silico research platform that comprise a clinical-genomic liquid biopsy dataset of advanced cancer patients. It is also developing tests from its LUNAR program for neoadjuvant and adjuvant treatment selection in early-stage cancer patients; LUNAR-2 test for the early detection of cancer in asymptomatic individuals eligible for cancer screening; and GuardantConnect, an integrated software-based solution for clinical and biopharmaceutical customers seeking to connect patients tested with the Guardant360 assay with actionable alterations with potentially relevant clinical trials. In addition, the company offers Guardant Reveal Test for residual disease and recurrence monitoring; Guardant360 tissue genotyping product; and Guardant-19 for use in the detection of the novel coronavirus. Further, it offers development services, including companion diagnostic development and regulatory approval, clinical trial referral, and liquid biopsy testing development and support services to biopharmaceutical companies and medical institutions. Daiichi Sankyo has collaboration with Guardant Health to develop Guardant360 CDx as a companion diagnostic for Enhertu in advanced metastatic non-small cell lung cancer. Guardant Health, Inc. was incorporated in 2011 and is headquartered in Redwood City, California.
About Exagen
Exagen Inc. develops and commercializes various testing products based on its Cell-Bound Complement Activation Products technology under the AVISE brand in the United States. It enables rheumatologists to enhance care for patients through the diagnosis, prognosis, and monitoring of complex autoimmune and autoimmune related diseases, including systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Its lead testing product is AVISE CTD that enables differential diagnosis for patients presenting with symptoms indicative of various connective tissue diseases (CTDs) and other related diseases with overlapping symptoms. The company's products also comprise AVISE Lupus that measures activation of the complement system by quantifying the level of B-cell C4d and erythrocyte bound C4d in the patient's blood; and AVISE APS, which consists of a panel of eight autoantibody tests that aids in the diagnosis and management of APS. In addition, it provides AVISE SLE Prognostic, a ten-biomarker panel of autoantibodies for assessing the potential for complications affecting the kidney, brain, and cardiovascular system; AVISE Vasculitis AAV, which utilizes a testing panel of individual analytes designed to provide physicians with rapid and reliable results in the assessment and monitoring of anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic antibody; AVISE Anti-CarP test, which identifies RA patients with severe disease requiring aggressive therapy, such as anti-TNF biologics; and AVISE PC4d that measures platelet- bound C4d. Further, the company offers AVISE SLE Monitor, a six-biomarker blood test; AVISE MTX, a patented and validated blood test that measures levels of MTXPG; and AVISE HCQ, a blood test designed to help rheumatologists objectively monitor levels of hydroxychloroquine. The company was formerly known as Exagen Diagnostics, Inc. and changed its name to Exagen Inc. in January 2019. Exagen Inc. was incorporated in 2002 and is headquartered in Vista, California.