Contrasting Mesoblast (NASDAQ:MESO) and Valneva (NASDAQ:VALN)

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

Institutional & Insider Ownership

11.4% of Valneva shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 1.4% of Mesoblast shares are owned by institutional investors. 14.9% of Valneva shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 18.8% of Mesoblast shares are owned by 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 summary of recent ratings for Valneva and Mesoblast, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Valneva	2	0	1	0	1.67
Mesoblast	1	0	1	0	2.00

Valneva currently has a consensus target price of $9.30, suggesting a potential upside of 35.77%. Mesoblast has a consensus target price of $39.00, suggesting a potential upside of 137.95%. Given Mesoblast’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Mesoblast is more favorable than Valneva.

Volatility & Risk

Valneva has a beta of 1.67, indicating that its stock price is 67% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Mesoblast has a beta of 2.12, indicating that its stock price is 112% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Valneva and Mesoblast”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Valneva	$197.56 million	3.29	-$130.33 million	($2.11)	-3.25
Mesoblast	$120.25 million	17.70	-$57.50 million	($0.28)	-58.54

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

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Valneva	-110.33%	-153.20%	-39.50%
Mesoblast	N/A	N/A	N/A

Summary

Mesoblast beats Valneva on 10 of the 13 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 Mesoblast

Mesoblast Limited engages in the development of regenerative medicine products in Australia, the United States, Singapore, and Switzerland. The company offers products in the areas of cardiovascular, spine orthopedic disorder, oncology, hematology, and immune-mediated and inflammatory diseases. Its proprietary regenerative medicine technology platform is based on specialized cells known as mesenchymal lineage cells. The company offers Remestemcel-L that is in Phase III clinical trials for the treatment of systemic inflammatory diseases, including steroid refractory acute graft versus host disease, acute respiratory distress syndrome, and biologic refractory inflammatory bowel disease; and Remestemcel-L, which is in Phase III clinical trials to treat chronic heart failure and chronic low back pain due to degenerative disc disease. It is also developing MPC-300-IV to treat biologic refractory rheumatoid arthritis diabetic nephropathy; and MPC-25-IC for the treatment or prevention of acute myocardial infarction. It has strategic partnerships with Tasly Pharmaceutical Group to offer MPC-150-IM for heart failure and MPC-25-IC for heart attacks in China; JCR Pharmaceuticals Co. Ltd. to treat wound healing in patients with epidermolysis bullosa; and Grünenthal to develops and commercializes cell therapy for the treatment of chronic low back pain. The company was incorporated in 2004 and is headquartered in Melbourne, Australia.