Comparing Cerus (NASDAQ:CERS) and Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT)

Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) and Cerus (NASDAQ:CERS) are both medical companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their profitability, earnings, dividends, analyst recommendations, risk, valuation and institutional ownership.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

75.2% of Abbott Laboratories shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 78.4% of Cerus shares are held by institutional investors. 0.5% of Abbott Laboratories shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 3.4% of Cerus shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current recommendations and price targets for Abbott Laboratories and Cerus, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Abbott Laboratories	1	4	19	3	2.89
Cerus	1	1	2	0	2.25

Abbott Laboratories currently has a consensus price target of $118.42, suggesting a potential upside of 24.32%. Cerus has a consensus price target of $4.00, suggesting a potential upside of 26.58%. Given Cerus’ higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Cerus is more favorable than Abbott Laboratories.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Abbott Laboratories and Cerus”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Abbott Laboratories	$44.33 billion	3.74	$6.52 billion	$3.57	26.68
Cerus	$206.13 million	3.07	-$15.63 million	($0.05)	-63.20

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

Profitability

This table compares Abbott Laboratories and Cerus’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Abbott Laboratories	13.90%	17.62%	10.01%
Cerus	-4.41%	-15.18%	-4.38%

Risk & Volatility

Abbott Laboratories has a beta of 0.61, suggesting that its share price is 39% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Cerus has a beta of 1.77, suggesting that its share price is 77% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Abbott Laboratories beats Cerus on 11 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Abbott Laboratories

Abbott Laboratories, together with its subsidiaries, discovers, develops, manufactures, and sells health care products worldwide. It operates in four segments: Established Pharmaceutical Products, Diagnostic Products, Nutritional Products, and Medical Devices. The company provides generic pharmaceuticals for the treatment of pancreatic exocrine insufficiency, irritable bowel syndrome or biliary spasm, intrahepatic cholestasis or depressive symptoms, gynecological disorder, hormone replacement therapy, dyslipidemia, hypertension, hypothyroidism, Ménière’s disease and vestibular vertigo, pain, fever, inflammation, and migraine, as well as provides anti-infective clarithromycin, influenza vaccine, and products to regulate physiological rhythm of the colon. It also offers laboratory and transfusion medicine systems in the areas of immunoassay, clinical chemistry, hematology, and transfusion; molecular diagnostics polymerase chain reaction instrument systems that automate the extraction, purification, and preparation of DNA and RNA from patient samples, and detect and measure infectious agents; point of care systems; cartridges for testing blood gas, chemistry, electrolytes, coagulation, and immunoassay; rapid diagnostics lateral flow testing products; molecular point-of-care testing for HIV, SARS-CoV-2, influenza A and B, RSV, and strep A; cardiometabolic test systems; drug and alcohol test, and remote patient monitoring and consumer self-test systems; and informatics and automation solutions for laboratories. In addition, the company provides pediatric and adult nutritional products; rhythm management, electrophysiology, heart failure, vascular, and structural heart devices for the treatment of cardiovascular diseases; diabetes care products, such as glucose and blood glucose monitoring systems; and neuromodulation devices for the management of chronic pain and movement disorders. Abbott Laboratories was founded in 1888 and is based in North Chicago, Illinois.

About Cerus

Cerus Corporation operates as a biomedical products company. The company focuses on developing and commercializing the INTERCEPT Blood System to enhance blood safety. Its INTERCEPT Blood System, a proprietary technology for controlling biological replication that is designed to reduce blood-borne pathogens in donated blood components intended for transfusion. The company offers INTERCEPT Blood Systems for platelets and plasma, which is designed to inactivate blood-borne pathogens in platelets and plasma donated for transfusion; INTERCEPT Blood System for red blood cells to inactivate blood-borne pathogens in red blood cells donated for transfusion; and INTERCEPT Blood System for Cryoprecipitation that uses its plasma system to produce pathogen reduced cryoprecipitated fibrinogen complex for the treatment and control of bleeding, including massive hemorrhage associated with fibrinogen deficiency, as well as pathogen reduced plasma, cryoprecipitate reduced. It sells platelet and plasma systems through its direct sales force and distributors in the United States, Europe, the Commonwealth of Independent States, the Middle East, Latin America, and internationally. Cerus Corporation was incorporated in 1991 and is headquartered in Concord, California.