Head-To-Head Review: Amarantus Bioscience (OTCMKTS:AMBS) versus Charles River Laboratories International (NYSE:CRL)

Amarantus Bioscience (OTCMKTS:AMBS) and Charles River Laboratories International (NYSE:CRL) are both medical companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, profitability, valuation, dividends, earnings, institutional ownership and analyst recommendations.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings for Amarantus Bioscience and Charles River Laboratories International, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Amarantus Bioscience	0	0	0	0	0.00
Charles River Laboratories International	1	3	12	0	2.69

Charles River Laboratories International has a consensus target price of $211.00, suggesting a potential upside of 15.32%. Given Charles River Laboratories International’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Charles River Laboratories International is more favorable than Amarantus Bioscience.

Profitability

This table compares Amarantus Bioscience and Charles River Laboratories International’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Amarantus Bioscience	N/A	N/A	N/A
Charles River Laboratories International	-4.59%	15.36%	6.61%

Institutional & Insider Ownership

98.9% of Charles River Laboratories International shares are held by institutional investors. 10.3% of Amarantus Bioscience shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 1.3% of Charles River Laboratories International shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Amarantus Bioscience and Charles River Laboratories International”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Amarantus Bioscience	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
Charles River Laboratories International	$4.02 billion	2.19	-$144.34 million	($3.76)	-48.66

Amarantus Bioscience has higher earnings, but lower revenue than Charles River Laboratories International.

Risk and Volatility

Amarantus Bioscience has a beta of 1.49, meaning that its stock price is 49% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Charles River Laboratories International has a beta of 1.46, meaning that its stock price is 46% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Charles River Laboratories International beats Amarantus Bioscience on 7 of the 10 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Amarantus Bioscience

Amarantus BioScience Holdings, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company, focuses on the development of diagnostic and therapeutic product candidates in the areas of neurology, psychiatry, ophthalmology, and regenerative medicine. The company's diagnostic products in development include the lymphocyte proliferation (LymPro) test, a diagnostic blood test for Alzheimer's disease; and MSPrecise, a proprietary DNA sequencing assay for the identification of patients with multiple sclerosis. Its therapeutic products in development comprise Eltoprazine, a small molecule drug for the treatment of Parkinson's disease Levadopa-Induced Dyskinesia and attention deficit hyperactivity disorders; and mesencephalic-astrocyte-derived neurotrophic factor for the treatment of various animal models, including retinitis pigmentosa and retinal artery occlusion. It also develops NuroPro, a neurodegenerative disease diagnostic platform with application in Parkinson's disease; BC-SeraPro, an oncology diagnostic platform with application in breast cancer; and PhenoGuard platform for neurrotrophic factor discovery. In addition, the company develops Engineered Skin Substitute (ESS), a cell therapy-based autologous skin replacement product that is in mid-stage clinical development for the treatment of life-threatening severe burns. Amarantus BioScience Holdings, Inc. has a cooperative research and development agreement with the U.S. Army Institute of Surgical Research and Rutgers University. The company was formerly known as Amarantus Bioscience, Inc. and changed its name to Amarantus BioScience Holdings, Inc. in April 2013. Amarantus BioScience Holdings, Inc. was founded in 2008 and is headquartered in New York, New York.

About Charles River Laboratories International

Charles River Laboratories International, Inc. provides drug discovery, non-clinical development, and safety testing services in the United States, Europe, Canada, the Asia Pacific, and internationally. It operates through three segments: Research Models and Services (RMS), Discovery and Safety Assessment (DSA), and Manufacturing Solutions (Manufacturing). The RMS segment produces and sells rodents, and purpose-bred rats and mice for use by researchers. This segment also provides a range of services to assist its clients in supporting the use of research models in research and screening pre-clinical drug candidates, including research models, genetically engineered models and services, insourcing solutions, and research animal diagnostic services. The DSA segment offers early and in vivo discovery services for the identification and validation of novel targets, chemical compounds, and antibodies through delivery of preclinical drug and therapeutic candidates ready for safety assessment; and safety assessment services, such as toxicology, pathology, safety pharmacology, bioanalysis, drug metabolism, and pharmacokinetics services. The Manufacturing segment provides in vitro methods for conventional and rapid quality control testing of sterile and non-sterile pharmaceuticals and consumer products. This segment also offers specialized testing of biologics that are outsourced by pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. It also provides contract vivarium operation services to biopharmaceutical clients. The company was founded in 1947 and is headquartered in Wilmington, Massachusetts.