Head to Head Comparison: Vaxart (NASDAQ:VXRT) vs. Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA)

Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA) and Vaxart (NASDAQ:VXRT) are both medical companies, but which is the better business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, dividends, earnings, risk, valuation, institutional ownership and profitability.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current ratings and recommmendations for Moderna and Vaxart, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Moderna	4	15	3	1	2.04
Vaxart	0	0	2	0	3.00

Moderna currently has a consensus price target of $53.95, indicating a potential upside of 122.46%. Vaxart has a consensus price target of $3.00, indicating a potential upside of 614.46%. Given Vaxart’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Vaxart is more favorable than Moderna.

Risk & Volatility

Moderna has a beta of 1.99, meaning that its share price is 99% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Vaxart has a beta of 1.27, meaning that its share price is 27% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

75.3% of Moderna shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 18.0% of Vaxart shares are owned by institutional investors. 11.0% of Moderna shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 2.9% of Vaxart shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Moderna and Vaxart”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Moderna	$3.14 billion	2.99	-$3.56 billion	($8.73)	-2.78
Vaxart	$28.70 million	3.34	-$82.46 million	($0.34)	-1.24

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

Profitability

This table compares Moderna and Vaxart’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Moderna	-110.04%	-28.74%	-21.83%
Vaxart	-431.61%	-110.46%	-62.78%

Summary

Moderna beats Vaxart on 9 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Moderna

Moderna, Inc., a biotechnology company, discovers, develops, and commercializes messenger RNA therapeutics and vaccines for the treatment of infectious diseases, immuno-oncology, rare diseases, autoimmune, and cardiovascular diseases in the United States, Europe, and internationally. Its respiratory vaccines include COVID-19, influenza, and respiratory syncytial virus, spikevax, and hMPV/PIV3 vaccines; latent vaccines comprise cytomegalovirus, epstein-barr virus, herpes simplex virus, varicella zoster virus, and human immunodeficiency virus vaccines; public health vaccines consists of Zika, Nipah, Mpox vaccines; and infectious diseases vaccines, such as lyme and norovirus vaccines. The company also offers systemic secreted and cell surface therapeutics; cancer vaccines, such as personalized cancer, KRAS, and checkpoint vaccines; intratumoral immuno-oncology products; rare disease intracellular therapeutics; and inhaled pulmonary therapeutics. It has strategic alliances and collaborations with AstraZeneca; Merck & Co., Inc; Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated; Vertex Pharmaceuticals (Europe) Limited; Chiesi Farmaceutici S.p.A.; Metagenomi, Inc.; Carisma Therapeutics, Inc.; CytomX Therapeutics; Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency; Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority; Institute for Life Changing Medicines; and The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The company was formerly known as Moderna Therapeutics, Inc. and changed its name to Moderna, Inc. in August 2018. Moderna, Inc. was founded in 2010 and is headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

About Vaxart

Vaxart, Inc., a clinical-stage biotechnology company, discovers and develops oral recombinant protein vaccines based on its proprietary oral vaccine platform. The company’s product pipeline includes norovirus vaccine, a bivalent oral tablet vaccine in Phase 2 clinical trial for the GI.1 and GII.4 norovirus strains; coronavirus vaccine, which is in Phase 2 clinical trial, for the treatment of SARS-CoV-2 infection; seasonal influenza vaccine, which is in Phase 2 clinical trial, to treat H1 influenza infection; and human papillomavirus therapeutic vaccine, which is in preclinical stage, that targets HPV-16 and HPV-18 for cervical cancers and precancerous cervical lesions. It has a license agreement with Altesa Biosciences, Inc. to develop and commercialize Vapendavir, a capsid-binding broad-spectrum antiviral. Vaxart, Inc. is headquartered in South San Francisco, California.