Financial Analysis: Basilea Pharmaceutica (OTCMKTS:BPMUF) vs. Novavax (NASDAQ:NVAX)

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

Insider & Institutional Ownership

53.0% of Novavax shares are held by institutional investors. 1.6% of Novavax shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations and price targets for Basilea Pharmaceutica and Novavax, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Basilea Pharmaceutica	0	1	0	0	2.00
Novavax	3	1	5	1	2.40

Novavax has a consensus target price of $13.00, suggesting a potential upside of 54.39%. Given Novavax’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Novavax is more favorable than Basilea Pharmaceutica.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Basilea Pharmaceutica and Novavax”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Basilea Pharmaceutica	$280.43 million	2.83	$48.57 million	N/A	N/A
Novavax	$1.12 billion	1.23	$440.30 million	($0.58)	-14.52

Novavax has higher revenue and earnings than Basilea Pharmaceutica.

Profitability

This table compares Basilea Pharmaceutica and Novavax’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Basilea Pharmaceutica	N/A	N/A	N/A
Novavax	-14.73%	-14.82%	1.23%

Volatility & Risk

Basilea Pharmaceutica has a beta of 0.17, indicating that its share price is 83% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Novavax has a beta of 2.43, indicating that its share price is 143% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Novavax beats Basilea Pharmaceutica on 10 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Basilea Pharmaceutica

Basilea Pharmaceutica AG, a commercial-stage biopharmaceutical company, focuses on the development of products that address the medical needs in the therapeutic areas of oncology and anti-infectives. The company offers Cresemba, an intravenous and antifungal drug for the treatment of invasive aspergillosis and mucormycosis in the United States, and the European Union. It also offers medicine drug for invasive fungal infections. In addition, the company provides Zevtera, an antibiotic for the treatment of community and hospital-acquired pneumonia, as well as offers treatment of acute bacterial skin and skin structure infections, and Staphylococcus aureus bacteremia. Further, it offers Fosmanogepix, an antifungal drug for the treatment of Candidemia which in Phase II clinical trials. Basilea Pharmaceutica AG was founded in 2000 and is headquartered in Allschwil, Switzerland.

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.