Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA) vs. Compugen (NASDAQ:CGEN) Head to Head Analysis

Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA) and Compugen (NASDAQ:CGEN) are both healthcare companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their dividends, institutional ownership, valuation, analyst recommendations, risk, earnings and profitability.

Risk & Volatility

Moderna has a beta of 0.91, meaning that its share price is 9% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Compugen has a beta of 2.77, meaning that its share price is 177% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Moderna and Compugen”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Moderna	$1.94 billion	11.25	-$2.82 billion	($7.99)	-6.90
Compugen	$72.76 million	3.09	$35.34 million	$0.37	6.43

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

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Moderna	-141.43%	-28.30%	-19.39%
Compugen	47.97%	47.72%	27.51%

Institutional & Insider Ownership

75.3% of Moderna shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 12.2% of Compugen shares are owned by institutional investors. 10.8% of Moderna shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 9.5% of Compugen shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent ratings for Moderna and Compugen, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Moderna	5	9	3	0	1.88
Compugen	1	0	3	1	2.80

Moderna presently has a consensus target price of $42.13, suggesting a potential downside of 23.59%. Compugen has a consensus target price of $5.00, suggesting a potential upside of 110.08%. Given Compugen’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Compugen is more favorable than Moderna.

Summary

Compugen beats Moderna on 10 of the 14 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 Compugen

Compugen Ltd., a clinical-stage therapeutic discovery and development company, researches, develops, and commercializes therapeutic and product candidates in Israel, the United States, and Europe. The company’s immuno-oncology pipeline consists of COM701, an anti-PVRIG antibody that is in Phase I clinical study used for the treatment of solid tumors; COM902, a therapeutic antibody targeting TIGIT, which is in Phase I monotherapy clinical study in patients with advanced malignancies through sequential dose escalations; Bapotulimab, a therapeutic antibody targeting ILDR2 that is in Phase I clinical study in patients with naïve head and neck squamous cell carcinoma; and Rilvegostomig, a novel anti-TIGIT/PD-1 bispecific antibody, which is in Phase II clinical study in patients with advanced or metastatic non-small cell lung cancer. Its therapeutic pipeline also includes early-stage immuno-oncology programs focused to address various mechanisms of immune resistance; and COM503, high affinity antibody, which blocks the interaction between IL-18 binding protein and IL-18. The company has collaboration agreement with Bayer Pharma AG for the research, development, and commercialization of antibody-based therapeutics against the company’s immune checkpoint regulators; Bristol-Myers Squibb to evaluate the safety and tolerability of COM701 in combination with Bristol-Myers Squibb’s PD-1 immune checkpoint inhibitor Opdivo in patients with advanced solid tumors; and Johns Hopkins School of Medicine to evaluate novel T cell and myeloid checkpoint targets. It has license agreement with AstraZeneca for the development of bi-specific and multi-specific immuno-oncology antibody products; and research collaboration with Johns Hopkins University for myeloid. Compugen Ltd. was incorporated in 1993 and is headquartered in Holon, Israel.