Financial Survey: Novavax (NASDAQ:NVAX) and Elevation Oncology (NASDAQ:ELEV)

Novavax (NASDAQ:NVAX) and Elevation Oncology (NASDAQ:ELEV) are both small-cap medical companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their profitability, institutional ownership, earnings, risk, valuation, dividends and analyst recommendations.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Novavax and Elevation Oncology”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Novavax	$682.16 million	1.45	-$545.06 million	($1.33)	-4.62
Elevation Oncology	N/A	N/A	-$45.70 million	($0.81)	-0.34

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

Institutional & Insider Ownership

53.0% of Novavax shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 83.7% of Elevation Oncology shares are held by institutional investors. 1.0% of Novavax shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 8.1% of Elevation Oncology shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current recommendations and price targets for Novavax and Elevation Oncology, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Novavax	1	2	4	0	2.43
Elevation Oncology	0	7	3	0	2.30

Novavax currently has a consensus price target of $18.00, indicating a potential upside of 192.68%. Elevation Oncology has a consensus price target of $3.39, indicating a potential upside of 1,144.29%. Given Elevation Oncology’s higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Elevation Oncology is more favorable than Novavax.

Profitability

This table compares Novavax and Elevation Oncology’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Novavax	-32.18%	N/A	-17.05%
Elevation Oncology	N/A	-59.73%	-40.05%

Volatility & Risk

Novavax has a beta of 3.15, indicating that its stock price is 215% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Elevation Oncology has a beta of 1.65, indicating that its stock price is 65% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Elevation Oncology beats Novavax on 7 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Novavax

Novavax, Inc., a biotechnology company, that promotes improved health by discovering, developing, and commercializing vaccines to protect against serious infectious diseases. It offers vaccine platform that combines a recombinant protein approach, nanoparticle technology, and its patented Matrix-M adjuvant to enhance the immune response. It focuses on urgent health challenges, which is evaluating vaccines for COVID-19, influenza, and COVID-19 influenza combination. The company is commercializing a COVID-19 vaccine, NVX-CoV2373 under the brand names of Nuvaxovid, Covovax, and Novavax COVID-19 Vaccine, adjuvanted for adult and adolescent populations as a primary series and for both homologous and heterologous booster indications. It is also developing R21/Matrix-M adjuvant malaria vaccine. Novavax, Inc. was incorporated in 1987 and is headquartered in Gaithersburg, Maryland.

About Elevation Oncology

Elevation Oncology, Inc., an oncology company, focuses on the discovery and development of cancer therapies to treat patients across a range of solid tumors with significant unmet medical needs. The company's lead candidate is EO-3021, an antibody-drug conjugate designed to target Claudin 18.2, a clinically validated molecular target. Its EO-3021 selectively delivers a cytotoxic payload directly to cancer cells expressing Claudin 18.2. Elevation Oncology, Inc. has a license agreement with CSPC Megalith Biopharmaceutical Co., Ltd. to develop and commercialize EO-3021. The company was formerly known as 14ner Oncology, Inc. and changed its name to Elevation Oncology, Inc. in February 2020. The company was incorporated in 2019 and is based in Boston, Massachusetts.