Contrasting Astrazeneca (NYSE:AZN) and Lifecore Biomedical (NASDAQ:LFCR)

Lifecore Biomedical (NASDAQ:LFCR) and Astrazeneca (NYSE:AZN) are both healthcare companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their earnings, institutional ownership, valuation, risk, dividends, profitability and analyst recommendations.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

83.4% of Lifecore Biomedical shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 20.4% of Astrazeneca shares are owned by institutional investors. 32.7% of Lifecore Biomedical shares are owned 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.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent ratings and recommmendations for Lifecore Biomedical and Astrazeneca, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Lifecore Biomedical	1	4	0	0	1.80
Astrazeneca	0	4	15	0	2.79

Lifecore Biomedical currently has a consensus target price of $6.50, indicating a potential upside of 2.04%. Astrazeneca has a consensus target price of $206.67, indicating a potential upside of 19.71%. Given Astrazeneca’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Astrazeneca is more favorable than Lifecore Biomedical.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Lifecore Biomedical and Astrazeneca”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Lifecore Biomedical	$128.87 million	1.87	-$40.50 million	($1.07)	-5.95
Astrazeneca	$58.74 billion	4.56	$10.22 billion	$6.69	25.81

Astrazeneca has higher revenue and earnings than Lifecore Biomedical. Lifecore Biomedical is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Astrazeneca, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Volatility and Risk

Lifecore Biomedical has a beta of 0.98, suggesting that its share price is 2% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Astrazeneca has a beta of 0.27, suggesting that its share price is 73% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Lifecore Biomedical and Astrazeneca’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Lifecore Biomedical	-29.93%	N/A	-16.16%
Astrazeneca	17.02%	31.45%	13.20%

Summary

Astrazeneca beats Lifecore Biomedical on 11 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Lifecore Biomedical

Lifecore Biomedical, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, operates as an integrated contract development and manufacturing organization in the United States and internationally. The company engages in the manufacturing of pharmaceutical-grade sodium hyaluronate (HA) in bulk form, as well as formulated and filled syringes and vials for injectable products used in treating a range of medical conditions and procedures. It also provides services, such as technology development, material component changes, analytical method development, formulation development, pilot studies, stability studies, process validation, and production of materials for clinical studies to its partners for HA-based and non-HA based aseptically formulated and filled products. The company was formerly known as Landec Corporation and changed its name to Lifecore Biomedical, Inc. in November 2022. Lifecore Biomedical, Inc. was founded in 1965 and is headquartered in Chaska, Minnesota.

About Astrazeneca

AstraZeneca PLC, a biopharmaceutical company, focuses on the discovery, development, manufacturing, and commercialization of prescription medicines. Its marketed products include Calquence, Enhertu, Faslodex, Imfinzi, Iressa, Koselugo, Lumoxiti, Lynparza, Orpathys, Tagrisso, and Zoladex for oncology; Brilinta/Brilique, Bydureon/Byetta, BCise, Byetta, Crestor, Evrenzo, Farxiga/Forxiga, Komboglyze/Kombiglyze XR, Lokelma, Onglyza, Qtern, and Xigduo/Xigduo XR for cardiovascular, renal, and metabolism diseases; Bevespi Aerosphere, Breztri Aerosphere, Daliresp/Daxas, Duaklir Genuair, Fasenra, Pulmicort, Saphnelo, Symbicort, and Tudorza/Eklira/Bretaris for respiratory and immunology; and Andexxa/Ondexxya, Kanuma, Soliris, Strensiq, and Ultomiris for rare diseases. The company’s marketed products also comprise Synagis for respiratory syncytial virus; Fluenz Tetra/FluMist Quadrivalent for Influenza; Seroquel IR/Seroquel XR for schizophrenia bipolar disease; Nexium, and Losec/Prilosec for gastroenterology; and Vaxzevria and Evusheld for covid-19. The company serves primary care and specialty care physicians through distributors and local representative offices in the United Kingdom, rest of Europe, the Americas, Asia, Africa, and Australasia. It has a collaboration agreement with Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc. to research, develop, and commercialize small molecule medicines for obesity; Neurimmune AG to develop and commercialize NI006; Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. to develop eplontersen, a liver-targeted antisense therapy in Phase III development for the treatment of transthyretin amyloidosis; Proteros Biostructures GmbH to jointly discover novel small molecules for the treatment of hematological cancers; Sierra Oncology, Inc. to develop and commercialize AZD5153. The company was formerly known as Zeneca Group PLC and changed its name to AstraZeneca PLC in April 1999. AstraZeneca PLC was incorporated in 1992 and is headquartered in Cambridge, the United Kingdom.