Head-To-Head Comparison: Vir Biotechnology (NASDAQ:VIR) & Aura Biosciences (NASDAQ:AURA)

Aura Biosciences (NASDAQ:AURA) and Vir Biotechnology (NASDAQ:VIR) are both small-cap medical companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their valuation, risk, earnings, analyst recommendations, dividends, institutional ownership and profitability.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current ratings and target prices for Aura Biosciences and Vir Biotechnology, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Aura Biosciences	0	0	3	0	3.00
Vir Biotechnology	0	3	4	0	2.57

Aura Biosciences presently has a consensus price target of $21.00, suggesting a potential upside of 167.52%. Vir Biotechnology has a consensus price target of $34.38, suggesting a potential upside of 239.34%. Given Vir Biotechnology’s higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Vir Biotechnology is more favorable than Aura Biosciences.

Profitability

This table compares Aura Biosciences and Vir Biotechnology’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Aura Biosciences	N/A	-40.83%	-35.31%
Vir Biotechnology	-713.69%	-34.92%	-27.73%

Insider & Institutional Ownership

96.8% of Aura Biosciences shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 65.3% of Vir Biotechnology shares are held by institutional investors. 5.9% of Aura Biosciences shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 18.1% of Vir Biotechnology shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Aura Biosciences and Vir Biotechnology’s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Aura Biosciences	N/A	N/A	-$58.76 million	($1.94)	-4.05
Vir Biotechnology	$39.49 million	34.63	-$615.06 million	($4.59)	-2.21

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

Risk and Volatility

Aura Biosciences has a beta of 0.4, meaning that its share price is 60% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Vir Biotechnology has a beta of 0.42, meaning that its share price is 58% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Vir Biotechnology beats Aura Biosciences on 8 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Aura Biosciences

Aura Biosciences, Inc. operates as a biotechnology company that develops therapies to treat cancer. The company develops virus-like drug conjugates (VDC) technology platform for treating tumors of high unmet need in ocular and urologic oncology. It is developing AU-011, a VDC candidate for the treatment of primary choroidal melanoma that is in phase III clinical trial. The company also develops AU-011 for additional ocular oncology indications, including choroidal metastases and is in Phase 2 dose-escalation trial. The company was incorporated in 2009 and is headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

About Vir Biotechnology

Vir Biotechnology, Inc., a commercial-stage immunology company, develops therapeutic products to treat and prevent serious infectious diseases. It offers tobevibart + elebsiran for the treatment of chronic hepatitis delta; elebsiran + PEG-IFN-a, tobevibart ± elebsiran ± PEG-IFN-a, and elebsiran+ TLR8+PD-1 for the treatment of chronic hepatitis B; VIR-1388 and Cure mAb combination for the treatment of human immunodeficiency virus; VIR-8190 for the treatment of respiratory syncytial virus / human metapneumovirus; VIR-2981 for the treatment of influenza; VIR-1949 for the treatment of pre-cancerous HPV lesions; and VIR07229 and Sotrovimab for the treatment of COVID-19 infection under the Xevudy brand. The company has grant agreements with Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and National Institutes of Health; an option and license agreement with Brii Biosciences Limited; a collaboration and license agreement with Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Inc.; license agreements with MedImmune; collaboration with WuXi Biologics and Glaxo Wellcome UK Ltd.; and a collaborative research agreement with GlaxoSmithKline Biologicals SA. It also has a manufacturing agreement with Samsung Biologics Co.,Ltd. for the manufacture of SARS-COV-2 antibodies. The company was incorporated in 2016 and is headquartered in San Francisco, California.