Contrasting CureVac (NASDAQ:CVAC) and AstraZeneca (NASDAQ:AZN)

CureVac (NASDAQ:CVAC) and AstraZeneca (NASDAQ:AZN) are both medical companies, but which is the superior stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their dividends, analyst recommendations, profitability, earnings, risk, institutional ownership and valuation.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

17.3% of CureVac shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 20.4% of AstraZeneca shares are held by institutional investors. 2.2% of CureVac 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 ratings and recommmendations for CureVac and AstraZeneca, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
CureVac	1	4	0	0	1.80
AstraZeneca	1	0	9	0	2.80

CureVac presently has a consensus price target of $6.83, indicating a potential upside of 46.64%. AstraZeneca has a consensus price target of $95.75, indicating a potential downside of 54.27%. Given CureVac’s higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe CureVac is more favorable than AstraZeneca.

Profitability

This table compares CureVac and AstraZeneca’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
CureVac	199.92%	-23.03%	-19.09%
AstraZeneca	16.17%	32.89%	13.00%

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares CureVac and AstraZeneca”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
CureVac	$70.74 million	14.78	$175.50 million	$0.72	6.47
AstraZeneca	$58.74 billion	5.53	$7.04 billion	$5.80	36.10

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

Volatility & Risk

CureVac has a beta of 1.77, suggesting that its share price is 77% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, AstraZeneca has a beta of 0.34, suggesting that its share price is 66% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

AstraZeneca beats CureVac on 9 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About CureVac

CureVac N.V., a biopharmaceutical company, focuses on developing various transformative medicines based on messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA). It is developing prophylactic vaccines, such as mRNA-based vaccine candidates CV2CoV, which is in Phase 1 clinical trial against SARS-CoV-2; CV7202 which is in Phase 1 clinical trial for the treatment of rabies; and CVSQIV to treat multivalent seasonal influenza; Flu SV mRNA fot treating nucleotides, single antigen seasonal influenza. The company develops CV8102, which is in Phase 1 clinical trial for treating melanoma and adenoidcystic carcinoma, as well as squamous cell cancer of skin, head, and neck; and CVGBM for treating cancer. CureVac N.V. was founded in 2000 and is headquartered in Tübingen, Germany.

About AstraZeneca

AstraZeneca PLC, a biopharmaceutical company, focuses on the discovery, development, manufacture, and commercialization of prescription medicines. The company’s marketed products include Tagrisso, Imfinzi, Lynparza, Calquence, Enhertu, Orpathys, Truqap, Zoladex, Faslodex, Farxiga, Brilinta, Lokelma, Roxadustat, Andexxa, Crestor, Seloken, Onglyza, Bydureon, Fasenra, Breztri, Symbicort, Saphnelo, Tezspire, Pulmicort, Bevespi, and Daliresp for cardiovascular, renal, metabolism, and oncology. Its marketed products also comprise Vaxzevria, Beyfortus, Synagis, FluMist, Soliris, Ultomiris, Strensiq, Koselugo, and Kanuma for covid-19 and rare disease. The company serves primary care and specialty care physicians through distributors and local representative offices in the United Kingdom, rest of Europe, the Americas, Asia, Africa, and Australasia. It has a collaboration agreement with Neurimmune AG to develop and commercialize NI006; BenevolentAI for drug discovery for systemic lupus erythematosus; and Absci Corporation for AI-driven drug discovery against an oncology target. The company was formerly known as Zeneca Group PLC and changed its name to AstraZeneca PLC in April 1999. AstraZeneca PLC was incorporated in 1992 and is headquartered in Cambridge, the United Kingdom.