Mesoblast (NASDAQ:MESO) vs. BioXcel Therapeutics (NASDAQ:BTAI) Financial Analysis

Mesoblast (NASDAQ:MESO) and BioXcel Therapeutics (NASDAQ:BTAI) are both small-cap healthcare companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their valuation, risk, dividends, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, profitability and earnings.

Risk & Volatility

Mesoblast has a beta of 2.14, suggesting that its share price is 114% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, BioXcel Therapeutics has a beta of 0.19, suggesting that its share price is 81% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Mesoblast and BioXcel Therapeutics”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Mesoblast	$120.25 million	14.70	-$57.50 million	($0.28)	-48.61
BioXcel Therapeutics	$640,000.00	3.63	-$69.90 million	($3.79)	-0.02

Mesoblast has higher revenue and earnings than BioXcel Therapeutics. Mesoblast 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 Mesoblast and BioXcel Therapeutics’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Mesoblast	N/A	N/A	N/A
BioXcel Therapeutics	-9,549.87%	N/A	-185.82%

Insider and Institutional Ownership

1.4% of Mesoblast shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 30.7% of BioXcel Therapeutics shares are owned by institutional investors. 18.8% of Mesoblast shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 3.7% of BioXcel Therapeutics shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent recommendations and price targets for Mesoblast and BioXcel Therapeutics, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Mesoblast	1	0	2	0	2.33
BioXcel Therapeutics	1	1	2	0	2.25

Mesoblast presently has a consensus price target of $39.00, indicating a potential upside of 186.55%. BioXcel Therapeutics has a consensus price target of $11.00, indicating a potential upside of 14,744.80%. Given BioXcel Therapeutics’ higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe BioXcel Therapeutics is more favorable than Mesoblast.

Summary

Mesoblast beats BioXcel Therapeutics on 9 of the 12 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Mesoblast

Mesoblast Limited engages in the development of regenerative medicine products in Australia, the United States, Singapore, and Switzerland. The company offers products in the areas of cardiovascular, spine orthopedic disorder, oncology, hematology, and immune-mediated and inflammatory diseases. Its proprietary regenerative medicine technology platform is based on specialized cells known as mesenchymal lineage cells. The company offers Remestemcel-L that is in Phase III clinical trials for the treatment of systemic inflammatory diseases, including steroid refractory acute graft versus host disease, acute respiratory distress syndrome, and biologic refractory inflammatory bowel disease; and Remestemcel-L, which is in Phase III clinical trials to treat chronic heart failure and chronic low back pain due to degenerative disc disease. It is also developing MPC-300-IV to treat biologic refractory rheumatoid arthritis diabetic nephropathy; and MPC-25-IC for the treatment or prevention of acute myocardial infarction. It has strategic partnerships with Tasly Pharmaceutical Group to offer MPC-150-IM for heart failure and MPC-25-IC for heart attacks in China; JCR Pharmaceuticals Co. Ltd. to treat wound healing in patients with epidermolysis bullosa; and Grünenthal to develops and commercializes cell therapy for the treatment of chronic low back pain. The company was incorporated in 2004 and is headquartered in Melbourne, Australia.

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.