Financial Analysis: Aquestive Therapeutics (NASDAQ:AQST) vs. InMed Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:INM)

InMed Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:INM) and Aquestive Therapeutics (NASDAQ:AQST) are both small-cap medical companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, risk, earnings, valuation, profitability, analyst recommendations and dividends.

Profitability

This table compares InMed Pharmaceuticals and Aquestive Therapeutics’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
InMed Pharmaceuticals	-171.13%	-85.91%	-70.29%
Aquestive Therapeutics	-158.95%	N/A	-59.86%

Risk and Volatility

InMed Pharmaceuticals has a beta of 0.31, meaning that its share price is 69% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Aquestive Therapeutics has a beta of 1.59, meaning that its share price is 59% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

20.1% of InMed Pharmaceuticals shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 32.5% of Aquestive Therapeutics shares are held by institutional investors. 0.9% of InMed Pharmaceuticals shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 8.4% of Aquestive Therapeutics shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent ratings and target prices for InMed Pharmaceuticals and Aquestive Therapeutics, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
InMed Pharmaceuticals	1	0	0	0	1.00
Aquestive Therapeutics	1	0	7	2	3.00

Aquestive Therapeutics has a consensus price target of $8.83, indicating a potential upside of 52.04%. Given Aquestive Therapeutics’ stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Aquestive Therapeutics is more favorable than InMed Pharmaceuticals.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares InMed Pharmaceuticals and Aquestive Therapeutics”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
InMed Pharmaceuticals	$4.80 million	0.75	-$8.16 million	($6.02)	-0.21
Aquestive Therapeutics	$57.56 million	12.31	-$44.14 million	($0.71)	-8.18

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

Summary

Aquestive Therapeutics beats InMed Pharmaceuticals on 13 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About InMed Pharmaceuticals

InMed Pharmaceuticals Inc., a clinical stage pharmaceutical company, develops a pipeline of prescription-based products. The company operates through two segments, the InMed and the BayMedica. The InMed segment researches and develops cannabinoid-based pharmaceuticals products. The BayMedica segment develops proprietary manufacturing technologies to produce and sell rare cannabinoids for the health and wellness industry. Its prescription-based products include rare cannabinoids and novel cannabinoid analogs for the treatment of diseases with high unmet medical needs. The company’s lead product is INM-755, a cannabinol topical skin cream, completed Phase 2 clinical trial for the treatment of epidermolysis bullosa. It also develops INM-088, which is in preclinical studies for the treatment of glaucoma; and INM-900 for neurodegenerative diseases. In addition, the company offers IntegraSyn, an integrated biosynthesis-based manufacturing approach, for pharmaceutical-grade cannabinoids; and cannabichromene, cannabicitran, cannabidivarin, and tetrahydrocannabivarin. The company was formerly known as Cannabis Technologies Inc. and changed its name to InMed Pharmaceuticals Inc. in October 2014. InMed Pharmaceuticals Inc. was incorporated in 1981 and is headquartered in Vancouver, Canada.

About Aquestive Therapeutics

Aquestive Therapeutics, Inc. operates as a pharmaceutical company in the United States and internationally. The company markets Sympazan, an oral soluble film formulation of clobazam for the treatment of lennox-gastaut syndrome; Suboxone, a sublingual film formulation of buprenorphine and naloxone for the treatment of opioid dependence; Zuplenz, an oral soluble film formulation of ondansetron for the treatment of nausea and vomiting associated with chemotherapy and post-operative recovery; and Azstarys, a once-daily product for the treatment of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Its proprietary product candidates comprise Libervant, a buccal soluble film formulation of diazepam for the treatment of seizures; KYNMOBI, a sublingual film formulation of apomorphine for the treatment of episodic off-periods in Parkinson's disease; and Exservan, an oral soluble film formulation of riluzole for the treatment of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. The company's proprietary pipeline of complex molecule product includes AQST-108, a sublingual film formulation delivering systemic epinephrine for the treatment of conditions other than anaphylaxis; and Anaphylm, an epinephrine sublingual film for the emergency treatment of allergic reactions, including anaphylaxis. In addition, it develops Adrenaverse, an epinephrine prodrug platform. The company was incorporated in 2004 and is headquartered in Warren, New Jersey.