Oxford Immunotec Global PLC (OXFD) versus WaferGen Bio-systems (NASDAQ:WGBS) Critical Analysis

Oxford Immunotec Global PLC (NASDAQ: OXFD) and WaferGen Bio-systems (NASDAQ:WGBS) are both medical companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their earnings, valuation, dividends, risk, profitabiliy, analyst recommendations and institutional ownership.

Profitability

This table compares Oxford Immunotec Global PLC and WaferGen Bio-systems’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Oxford Immunotec Global PLC	-25.83%	-31.48%	-22.01%
WaferGen Bio-systems	-153.30%	-463.27%	-111.39%

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent ratings and recommmendations for Oxford Immunotec Global PLC and WaferGen Bio-systems, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Oxford Immunotec Global PLC	0	0	1	0	3.00
WaferGen Bio-systems	0	0	0	0	N/A

Oxford Immunotec Global PLC currently has a consensus price target of $19.00, indicating a potential upside of 16.49%. Given Oxford Immunotec Global PLC’s higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Oxford Immunotec Global PLC is more favorable than WaferGen Bio-systems.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

87.5% of Oxford Immunotec Global PLC shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 49.8% of WaferGen Bio-systems shares are owned by institutional investors. 7.6% of Oxford Immunotec Global PLC shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 5.8% of WaferGen Bio-systems shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Oxford Immunotec Global PLC and WaferGen Bio-systems’ gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	EBITDA	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Oxford Immunotec Global PLC	$90.47 million	4.13	-$22.95 million	($1.05)	-15.53
WaferGen Bio-systems	N/A	N/A	N/A	($6.30)	-1.10

WaferGen Bio-systems has higher revenue, but lower earnings than Oxford Immunotec Global PLC. Oxford Immunotec Global PLC is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than WaferGen Bio-systems, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Risk & Volatility

Oxford Immunotec Global PLC has a beta of -0.11, meaning that its share price is 111% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, WaferGen Bio-systems has a beta of 1.29, meaning that its share price is 29% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Oxford Immunotec Global PLC beats WaferGen Bio-systems on 9 of the 10 factors compared between the two stocks.

Oxford Immunotec Global PLC Company Profile

Oxford Immunotec Global PLC is a diagnostics company. The Company is focused on developing and commercializing tests for under-served immune-regulated conditions. The Company’s product lines and development activities principally focus on four areas: infectious diseases, transplantation, autoimmune and inflammatory disease and immune-oncology. Its T-SPOT.TB test is used to test for tuberculosis (TB), infection and leverages its T-SPOT technology platform, which allows it to measure the response of specific immune cells to inform the diagnosis, prognosis and monitoring of patients with immune-regulated conditions. It offers a range of assays for tick-borne diseases, such as Lyme disease, obtained through the acquisitions of Imugen and Immunetics. It has a series of assays for use in blood screening, building upon its expertise in tick-borne disease. Its T-SPOT. CMV and T-SPOT. PRT tests are part of its product line focused on the transplantation market.

WaferGen Bio-systems Company Profile

WaferGen Bio-systems, Inc. (WaferGen) is engaged in the development, manufacture and sale of genomic technology solutions for single-cell analysis (SCA) and clinical research. The Company focuses on marketing an open format genetic analysis system, the WaferGen SmartChip System. The Company’s ICELL8 Single-Cell System is a platform that can isolate a range of single cells and process specific cells for analysis, including Next Generation Sequencing (NGS). ICELL8 is based upon the Company’s SmartChip platform, which is also used for profiling and validating molecular biomarkers. The Company’s SmartChip is a micro-fabricated chip comprising a range of massively-parallel micro wells that are physically separated from each other. It offers SmartChip System Capabilities, SmartChip Single-Cell Isolation System, SmartChip Target Enrichment (TE) System and Apollo 324 Library Preparation.