BioXcel Therapeutics (NASDAQ:BTAI) and Kezar Life Sciences (NASDAQ:KZR) Critical Comparison

BioXcel Therapeutics (NASDAQ:BTAI) and Kezar Life Sciences (NASDAQ:KZR) are both small-cap medical companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, profitability, earnings, risk, valuation, dividends and analyst recommendations.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares BioXcel Therapeutics and Kezar Life Sciences”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
BioXcel Therapeutics	$2.27 million	19.65	-$59.60 million	($9.70)	-0.21
Kezar Life Sciences	$7.00 million	6.59	-$83.74 million	($8.44)	-0.75

BioXcel Therapeutics has higher earnings, but lower revenue than Kezar Life Sciences. Kezar Life Sciences is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than BioXcel Therapeutics, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

This table compares BioXcel Therapeutics and Kezar Life Sciences’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
BioXcel Therapeutics	-9,070.61%	N/A	-185.00%
Kezar Life Sciences	N/A	-62.53%	-51.77%

Risk & Volatility

BioXcel Therapeutics has a beta of 0.21, indicating that its share price is 79% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Kezar Life Sciences has a beta of 0.55, indicating that its share price is 45% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

30.7% of BioXcel Therapeutics shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 67.9% of Kezar Life Sciences shares are held by institutional investors. 3.7% of BioXcel Therapeutics shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 10.4% of Kezar Life Sciences shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and price targets for BioXcel Therapeutics and Kezar Life Sciences, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
BioXcel Therapeutics	1	1	2	1	2.60
Kezar Life Sciences	2	4	0	0	1.67

BioXcel Therapeutics currently has a consensus target price of $37.50, indicating a potential upside of 1,738.24%. Kezar Life Sciences has a consensus target price of $6.00, indicating a potential downside of 4.76%. Given BioXcel Therapeutics’ stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities research analysts clearly believe BioXcel Therapeutics is more favorable than Kezar Life Sciences.

Summary

BioXcel Therapeutics beats Kezar Life Sciences on 8 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About BioXcel Therapeutics

BioXcel Therapeutics, Inc., a commercial-stage biopharmaceutical company, engages in utilizing artificial intelligence approaches to develop transformative medicines in neuroscience and immuno-oncology. The company's drug re-innovation approach leverages existing approved drugs and/or clinically validated product candidates together with big data and proprietary machine learning algorithms to identify new therapeutic indices. Its commercial product, IGALMI, a sublingual film formulation of dexmedetomidine for the acute treatment of agitation associated with schizophrenia or bipolar I or II disorder in adults. The company also continues to conduct clinical trials evaluating BXCL501 for the acute treatment of agitation in Alzheimer's disease patients, and for adjunctive treatment of patients with major depressive disorder, as well as in the community for agitation associated with bipolar disorders and schizophrenia. In addition, it is developing BXCL502 as a potential therapy for chronic agitation in dementia; and BXCL701, an investigational, orally innate immunity activator for the treatment of aggressive forms of prostate cancer, pancreatic cancer, and other solid and liquid tumors; BXCL503, a drug candidate to target apathy in dementia; and BXCL504, a drug candidate to target aggression in dementia. BioXcel Therapeutics, Inc. was incorporated in 2017 and is headquartered in New Haven, Connecticut.

About Kezar Life Sciences

Kezar Life Sciences, Inc., a clinical-stage biotechnology company, engages in the discovery and development of novel small molecule therapeutics to treat unmet needs in immune-mediated diseases and cancer in the United States. The company's lead product candidate is zetomipzomib (KZR-616), a selective immunoproteasome inhibitor that is in Phase 2b clinical trials for various indications, including lupus nephritis, dermatomyositis, and polymyositis; Phase 1b clinical trials in systemic lupus erythematosus; and completed Phase 2a clinical trials in lupus nephritis. Its preclinical products include KZR-261, a novel first-in-class protein secretion inhibitor for the treatment of tumors resistant to traditional chemotherapeutics. Kezar Life Sciences, Inc. was incorporated in 2015 and is headquartered in South San Francisco, California.