Contrasting Valneva (NASDAQ:VALN) and MacroGenics (NASDAQ:MGNX)

Valneva (NASDAQ:VALN) and MacroGenics (NASDAQ:MGNX) are both small-cap healthcare companies, but which is the superior stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, institutional ownership, earnings, dividends, analyst recommendations, valuation and profitability.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current ratings and price targets for Valneva and MacroGenics, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Valneva	2	0	1	0	1.67
MacroGenics	1	2	3	0	2.33

Valneva presently has a consensus price target of $9.30, indicating a potential upside of 76.81%. MacroGenics has a consensus price target of $6.33, indicating a potential upside of 181.48%. Given MacroGenics’ stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe MacroGenics is more favorable than Valneva.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Valneva and MacroGenics”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Valneva	$197.56 million	2.53	-$130.33 million	($2.11)	-2.49
MacroGenics	$149.50 million	0.96	-$74.62 million	($0.22)	-10.23

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

Insider and Institutional Ownership

11.4% of Valneva shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 96.9% of MacroGenics shares are held by institutional investors. 14.9% of Valneva shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 13.6% of MacroGenics shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Risk & Volatility

Valneva has a beta of 1.53, indicating that its stock price is 53% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, MacroGenics has a beta of 1.2, indicating that its stock price is 20% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Valneva and MacroGenics’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Valneva	-110.33%	-153.20%	-39.50%
MacroGenics	-8.70%	-109.26%	-18.70%

Summary

MacroGenics beats Valneva on 9 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Valneva

Valneva SE, a specialty vaccine company, develops, manufactures, and commercializes prophylactic vaccines for infectious diseases with unmet needs. It offers IXIARO, an inactivated Vero cell culture-derived Japanese encephalitis vaccine indicated for active immunization against Japanese encephalitis; DUKORAL, an oral vaccine for the prevention of diarrhea caused by Vibrio cholera and/or heat-labile toxin producing enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli bacterium; IXCHIQ, a single-dose, live-attenuated vaccine for the prevention of disease caused by chikungunya virus; and VLA2001, an inactivated whole-virus COVID-19 vaccine. The company also develops VLA15, a vaccine candidate, which is in Phase III clinical trial against Borrelia, the bacterium that causes Lyme disease; VLA1553, a vaccine candidate, which is in Phase III clinical trial against the chikungunya virus; VLA1554, a vaccine candidate targeting human metapneumovirus; and VLA2112, a vaccine candidate to treat patients with epstein-barr virus. It sells its products in the United States, Canada, Germany, Austria, Nordics, the United Kingdom, France, rest of European countries, and internationally. Valneva SE has collaborations with Pfizer, Inc. to co-develop and commercialize its Lyme disease vaccine; and Instituto Butantan for the development, manufacturing, and marketing of single-shot chikungunya vaccine. The company was founded in 1998 and is based in Saint-Herblain, France.

About MacroGenics

MacroGenics, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company, develops, manufactures, and commercializes antibody-based therapeutics to treat cancer in the United States. Its approved product is MARGENZA (margetuximab-cmkb), a human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) receptor antagonist indicated, in combination with chemotherapy, for the treatment of adult patients with metastatic HER2-positive breast cancer who have received two or more prior anti-HER2 regimens. The company's pipeline of immuno-oncology product candidates includes MGC018, an antibody drug conjugate (ADC), which targets solid tumors expressing B7-H3; Enoblituzumab, a monoclonal antibody that targets B7-H3; and MGD024, an investigational bispecific CD123 × CD3 DART molecule to minimize cytokine-release syndrome for patients with hematologic malignancies. In addition, it develops Lorigerlimab, a monoclonal antibody that targets the immune checkpoints PD-1 and cytotoxic T-lymphocyte-associated protein 4; Tebotelimab, an investigational tetravalent DART molecule for PD-1 and lymphocyte-activation gene 3; Retifanlimab, a humanized monoclonal antibody targeting programmed death receptor-1; and IMGC936, an ADC that targets ADAM9, a cell surface protein over-expressed in various solid tumor types. Further, the company develops MGD014 and MGD020, a DART molecule to target the envelope protein of human immunodeficiency virus infected cells and CD3 on T cells; Teplizumab for the treatment of type 1 diabetes; and PRV-3279, a CD32B × CD79B DART molecule for the treatment of autoimmune indications. It has collaborations with Incyte Corporation; Zai Lab Limited; I-Mab Biopharma; and Janssen Biotech, Inc. The company was incorporated in 2000 and is headquartered in Rockville, Maryland.