Comparing Intra-Cellular Therapies (NASDAQ:ITCI) & Pacira BioSciences (NASDAQ:PCRX)

Intra-Cellular Therapies (NASDAQ:ITCI – Get Rating) and Pacira BioSciences (NASDAQ:PCRX – Get Rating) are both medical companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their dividends, institutional ownership, earnings, analyst recommendations, valuation, profitability and risk.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

87.0% of Intra-Cellular Therapies shares are held by institutional investors. 3.7% of Intra-Cellular Therapies shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 6.1% of Pacira BioSciences shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Risk & Volatility

Intra-Cellular Therapies has a beta of 1.13, indicating that its share price is 13% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Pacira BioSciences has a beta of 0.77, indicating that its share price is 23% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent ratings and target prices for Intra-Cellular Therapies and Pacira BioSciences, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Intra-Cellular Therapies	0	2	7	0	2.78
Pacira BioSciences	0	1	6	0	2.86

Intra-Cellular Therapies currently has a consensus price target of $69.40, indicating a potential upside of 50.90%. Pacira BioSciences has a consensus price target of $64.36, indicating a potential upside of 62.99%. Given Pacira BioSciences’ stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Pacira BioSciences is more favorable than Intra-Cellular Therapies.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Intra-Cellular Therapies and Pacira BioSciences’ revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Intra-Cellular Therapies	$250.31 million	17.51	-$256.26 million	($2.72)	-16.91
Pacira BioSciences	$666.82 million	2.72	$15.91 million	$0.31	127.39

Pacira BioSciences has higher revenue and earnings than Intra-Cellular Therapies. Intra-Cellular Therapies is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Pacira BioSciences, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

This table compares Intra-Cellular Therapies and Pacira BioSciences’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Intra-Cellular Therapies	-102.37%	-35.88%	-31.86%
Pacira BioSciences	2.39%	11.09%	4.74%

Summary

Pacira BioSciences beats Intra-Cellular Therapies on 10 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Intra-Cellular Therapies

(Get Rating)

Intra-Cellular Therapies, Inc. operates as a biopharmaceutical company. It focuses on the discovery and clinical development of small molecule drugs that address underserved medical needs in neuropsychiatric and neurological disorders by targeting intracellular signaling mechanisms within the central nervous system, or CNS. The firm’s lead product candidate, ITI-007, is in clinical development as a first-in-class treatment for schizophrenia. It also includes pre-clinical programs that are focused on advancing drug candidates for the treatment of cognitive dysfunction, in both schizophrenia and Alzheimer’s disease and for disease modification and the treatment of neurodegenerative disorders, including Alzheimer’s disease. The company was founded by Paul Greengard and Sharon Mates in 2002 and is headquartered in New York, NY.

About Pacira BioSciences

(Get Rating)

Pacira Biosciences, Inc. is a holding company, which engages in the provision of non-opioid pain management and regenerative health solutions to improve patients’ journeys along the neural pain pathway. Its products include EXPAREL, iovera, and DepoFoam. The company was founded in December 2006 and is headquartered in Tampa, FL.