Head to Head Analysis: Valneva (NASDAQ:VALN) & Cardio Diagnostics (NASDAQ:CDIO)

Valneva (NASDAQ:VALN) and Cardio Diagnostics (NASDAQ:CDIO) are both small-cap healthcare companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their earnings, valuation, dividends, risk, profitability, analyst recommendations and institutional ownership.

Volatility & Risk

Valneva has a beta of 1.67, indicating that its stock price is 67% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Cardio Diagnostics has a beta of 2.28, indicating that its stock price is 128% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Valneva	-110.33%	-153.20%	-39.50%
Cardio Diagnostics	-43,133.33%	-82.28%	-76.03%

Institutional and Insider Ownership

11.4% of Valneva shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 8.1% of Cardio Diagnostics shares are held by institutional investors. 14.9% of Valneva shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 9.0% of Cardio Diagnostics shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent recommendations and price targets for Valneva and Cardio Diagnostics, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Valneva	2	0	1	0	1.67
Cardio Diagnostics	1	0	0	0	1.00

Valneva currently has a consensus price target of $9.30, indicating a potential upside of 39.64%. Given Valneva’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities analysts clearly believe Valneva is more favorable than Cardio Diagnostics.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Valneva and Cardio Diagnostics”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Valneva	$197.56 million	3.20	-$130.33 million	($2.11)	-3.16
Cardio Diagnostics	$10,000.00	600.88	-$6.50 million	($2.92)	-0.70

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

Summary

Valneva beats Cardio Diagnostics 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 Cardio Diagnostics

Cardio Diagnostics Holdings, Inc. develops and commercializes epigenetics-based clinical tests for cardiovascular disease. It offers Epi+Gen CHD, a three-year symptomatic coronary heart disease (CHD) risk assessment test targeting CHD events, including heart attacks; and PrecisionCHD, an integrated epigenetic-genetic blood test for the early detection of coronary heart disease. Cardio Diagnostics Holdings, Inc. was founded in 2017 and is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois.