Adagene (NASDAQ:ADAG) vs. Rafael (NYSE:RFL) Critical Review

Rafael (NYSE:RFL) and Adagene (NASDAQ:ADAG) are both small-cap medical companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, dividends, valuation, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, profitability and earnings.

Risk & Volatility

Rafael has a beta of 1.12, meaning that its share price is 12% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Adagene has a beta of 0.52, meaning that its share price is 48% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current recommendations for Rafael and Adagene, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Rafael	0	0	0	0	0.00
Adagene	0	1	1	0	2.50

Adagene has a consensus target price of $8.00, indicating a potential upside of 296.04%. Given Adagene’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Adagene is more favorable than Rafael.

Profitability

This table compares Rafael and Adagene’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Rafael	-5,707.03%	-53.71%	-48.78%
Adagene	N/A	N/A	N/A

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Rafael and Adagene”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Rafael	$697,000.00	71.06	-$34.41 million	($1.67)	-1.19
Adagene	$815,746.00	109.63	-$18.95 million	N/A	N/A

Adagene has higher revenue and earnings than Rafael.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

11.3% of Rafael shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 9.5% of Adagene shares are held by institutional investors. 10.2% of Rafael shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 21.2% of Adagene shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Summary

Adagene beats Rafael on 10 of the 12 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Rafael

Rafael Holdings, Inc. primarily engages in holding interests in clinical and early-stage pharmaceutical companies, and commercial real estate assets in the United States and Israel. It operates in two segments, Healthcare and Real Estate. The company engages in the development and commercialization of therapies that exploit the metabolic differences between normal cells and cancer cells. Its lead drug candidate is CPI-613 (devimistat), currently under Phase III clinical study for the treatment of metastatic pancreatic cancer and acute myeloid leukemia. The company is also involved in developing Promitil, a molecule designed for the targeted delivery of mitomycin-C in a proprietary prodrug form, completed Phase 1B clinical studies; Folate-targeted Promitil (Promi-Fol) which is aimed at local treatment (intravesical) of superficial bladder cancer; and Promi-Dox, a highly potent dual drug liposome with MLP and doxorubicin targeting a potential basket of tumors. In addition, it engages in the development of surgical and procedural devices, including orthopedic arthroscopy instrumentation. Rafael Holdings, Inc. was incorporated in 2017 and is headquartered in Newark, New Jersey.

About Adagene

Adagene Inc., a clinical stage biotechnology company, engages in the research, development, and production of monoclonal antibody drugs for cancers. The company's product candidates include ADG106, a human ligand-blocking agonistic anti- CD137 IgG4 monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) that is in Phase 1b/2 clinical trials for the treatment advanced solid tumors and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma; ADG126, a masked fully-human anti-CTLA-4 mAb that is in Phase 1 clinical trial for the treatment advanced/metastatic solid tumors; and ADG116, a human ligand-blocking anti-CTLA-4 mAb, which is in Phase 1b/2 clinical development for the treatment of advanced/metastatic solid tumors. It also offers ADG104, an anti-PD-L1 mAb that is in Phase 2 clinical development; ADG125, a novel anti-CSF-1R mAb, which is in Phase I clinical trial; ADG206, a masked, Fc engineered anti-CD137 agonistic POWERbody; ADG153, a masked anti-CD47 IgG1 SAFEbody, which is in preclinical for the treatment hematologic and solid tumors; ADG138, novel HER2xCD3 POWERbody, which is in preclinical for the treatment HER2-expressing solid tumors; and ADG152, a v POWERbody, which is in preclinical stage for the treatment off-tumor toxicities, as well as develops anti-CD28 bispecific POWERbody TCEs. The company was incorporated in 2011 and is headquartered in Suzhou, China.