Comparing Jazz Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:JAZZ) & ESSA Pharma (NASDAQ:EPIX)

Jazz Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:JAZZ) and ESSA Pharma (NASDAQ:EPIX) are both medical companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their earnings, institutional ownership, profitability, valuation, risk, dividends and analyst recommendations.

Risk and Volatility

Jazz Pharmaceuticals has a beta of 0.57, indicating that its share price is 43% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, ESSA Pharma has a beta of 1.62, indicating that its share price is 62% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current recommendations for Jazz Pharmaceuticals and ESSA Pharma, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Jazz Pharmaceuticals	0	2	13	0	2.87
ESSA Pharma	0	3	0	0	2.00

Jazz Pharmaceuticals presently has a consensus price target of $177.00, indicating a potential upside of 43.94%. ESSA Pharma has a consensus price target of $9.50, indicating a potential upside of 493.75%. Given ESSA Pharma’s higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe ESSA Pharma is more favorable than Jazz Pharmaceuticals.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Jazz Pharmaceuticals and ESSA Pharma”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Jazz Pharmaceuticals	$3.99 billion	1.86	$414.83 million	$7.10	17.32
ESSA Pharma	N/A	N/A	-$26.58 million	($0.64)	-2.50

Jazz Pharmaceuticals has higher revenue and earnings than ESSA Pharma. ESSA Pharma is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Jazz Pharmaceuticals, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

This table compares Jazz Pharmaceuticals and ESSA Pharma’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Jazz Pharmaceuticals	11.60%	29.30%	9.72%
ESSA Pharma	N/A	-20.17%	-19.62%

Insider & Institutional Ownership

89.1% of Jazz Pharmaceuticals shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 75.1% of ESSA Pharma shares are owned by institutional investors. 4.2% of Jazz Pharmaceuticals shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 14.7% of ESSA Pharma shares are owned by company 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.

Summary

Jazz Pharmaceuticals beats ESSA Pharma on 10 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Jazz Pharmaceuticals

Jazz Pharmaceuticals plc identifies, develops, and commercializes pharmaceutical products for unmet medical needs in the United States, Europe, and internationally. The company offers Xywav for cataplexy or excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS) with narcolepsy and idiopathic hypersomnia; Xyrem to treat cataplexy or EDS with narcolepsy; Epidiolex for seizures associated with Lennox-Gastaut and Dravet syndromes, or tuberous sclerosis complex; Zepzelca to treat metastatic small cell lung cancer, or with disease progression on or after platinum-based chemotherapy; Rylaze for acute lymphoblastic leukemia or lymphoblastic lymphoma; Enrylaze to treat acute lymphoblastic leukemia and lymphoblastic lymphoma; Defitelio to treat severe hepatic veno-occlusive disease; and Vyxeos for newly-diagnosed therapy-related acute myeloid leukemia. It also develops Zanidatamab to treat HER2-expressing gastroesophageal adenocarcinoma (GEA), and patients with HER2-expressing metastatic GEA; Zepzelca for the treatment of patients with select relapsed/refractory solid tumors based on limited response in three solid tumor cohorts; JZP815, a pan-RAF kinase inhibitor that targets components of the mitogen-activated protein kinase; JZP898, a conditionally-activated interferon alpha molecule; Epidiolex to treat LGS, DS, and TSC; Suvecaltamide to treat parkinson’s disease tremor; JZP150, a fatty acid amide hydrolase inhibitor program to treat post-traumatic stress disorder; and JZP441 to treat narcolepsy, IH, and other sleep disorders. The company has licensing and collaboration agreements with XL-protein GmbH to extend the plasma half-life of selected asparaginase product candidates; Redx Pharma plc for preclinical activities Ras/Raf/MAP kinase pathway program; and Autifony Therapeutics Limited on discovering and developing drug candidates targeting two different ion channel targets associated with neurological disorders. The company was incorporated in 2003 and is headquartered in Dublin, Ireland.

About ESSA Pharma

ESSA Pharma Inc., a clinical stage pharmaceutical company, focuses the development of small molecule drugs for the treatment of prostate cancer. The company’s lead candidate EPI-7386, an androgen receptor based resistance mechanisms that develop in patients with castration-resistant prostate cancer and metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer. It has collaboration agreements with Bayer Consumer Care AG; Janssen Research & Development, LLC; and Astellas Pharma Inc. ESSA Pharma Inc. was incorporated in 2009 and is headquartered in Vancouver, Canada.