MediciNova (MNOV) Competitors

Kezar Life Sciences (NASDAQ:KZR) and MediciNova (NASDAQ:MNOV) are both small-cap medical companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their valuation, profitability, dividends, media sentiment, community ranking, risk, institutional ownership, earnings and analyst recommendations.

Which has more volatility and risk, KZR or MNOV?

Kezar Life Sciences has a beta of 0.22, indicating that its share price is 78% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, MediciNova has a beta of 0.77, indicating that its share price is 23% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Which has preferable valuation and earnings, KZR or MNOV?

MediciNova has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Kezar Life Sciences. MediciNova is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Kezar Life Sciences, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Company	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Kezar Life Sciences	$7M	7.81	-$101.87M	-$13.18	-0.57
MediciNova	$1M	95.65	-$8.56M	-$0.21	-9.29

Is KZR or MNOV more profitable?

MediciNova's return on equity of -17.55% beat Kezar Life Sciences' return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Kezar Life Sciences	N/A	-54.95%	-46.11%
MediciNova	N/A	-17.55%	-16.62%

Do analysts recommend KZR or MNOV?

Kezar Life Sciences presently has a consensus target price of $40.50, indicating a potential upside of 440.72%. Given Kezar Life Sciences' stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities analysts plainly believe Kezar Life Sciences is more favorable than MediciNova.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Kezar Life Sciences	0 Sell rating(s)	3 Hold rating(s)	0 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.00
MediciNova	0 Sell rating(s)	0 Hold rating(s)	0 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	0.00

Does the MarketBeat Community prefer KZR or MNOV?

MediciNova received 73 more outperform votes than Kezar Life Sciences when rated by MarketBeat users. However, 57.38% of users gave Kezar Life Sciences an outperform vote while only 49.18% of users gave MediciNova an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Kezar Life Sciences	Outperform Votes 136 57.38%	Underperform Votes 101 42.62%
MediciNova	Outperform Votes 209 49.18%	Underperform Votes 216 50.82%

Do institutionals & insiders believe in KZR or MNOV?

67.9% of Kezar Life Sciences shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 9.9% of MediciNova shares are held by institutional investors. 9.3% of Kezar Life Sciences shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 14.9% of MediciNova shares are held by 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.

Does the media refer more to KZR or MNOV?

In the previous week, Kezar Life Sciences had 1 more articles in the media than MediciNova. MarketBeat recorded 9 mentions for Kezar Life Sciences and 8 mentions for MediciNova. MediciNova's average media sentiment score of 0.63 beat Kezar Life Sciences' score of 0.46 indicating that MediciNova is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Kezar Life Sciences	1 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	2 Neutral mention(s)	2 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Neutral
MediciNova	0 Very Positive mention(s)	2 Positive mention(s)	5 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Summary

MediciNova beats Kezar Life Sciences on 9 of the 16 factors compared between the two stocks.