Comparing Valneva (NASDAQ:VALN) and GeoVax Labs (NASDAQ:GOVX)

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

Volatility & Risk

Valneva has a beta of 1.37, suggesting that its share price is 37% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, GeoVax Labs has a beta of 3.85, suggesting that its share price is 285% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current ratings and price targets for Valneva and GeoVax Labs, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Valneva	2	0	1	0	1.67
GeoVax Labs	1	1	1	0	2.00

Valneva presently has a consensus price target of $9.30, suggesting a potential upside of 64.31%. GeoVax Labs has a consensus price target of $150.00, suggesting a potential upside of 104,795.10%. Given GeoVax Labs’ stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe GeoVax Labs is more favorable than Valneva.

Profitability

This table compares Valneva and GeoVax Labs’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Valneva	-110.33%	-153.20%	-39.50%
GeoVax Labs	N/A	-743.64%	-394.74%

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Valneva and GeoVax Labs”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Valneva	$142.94 million	3.76	-$130.33 million	($2.11)	-2.68
GeoVax Labs	$2.49 million	0.42	-$21.47 million	($11.34)	-0.01

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

Insider and Institutional Ownership

11.4% of Valneva shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 6.1% of GeoVax Labs shares are owned by institutional investors. 14.9% of Valneva shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.2% of GeoVax Labs shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Summary

Valneva beats GeoVax Labs on 7 of the 13 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 GeoVax Labs

GeoVax Labs, Inc., a clinical-stage biotechnology company, develops human vaccines and immunotherapies against infectious diseases and solid tumor cancers using modified vaccinia ankara virus-like particle vaccine platform. It is developing various preventive vaccines against (COVID-19), human immunodeficiency virus (HIV); Zika virus; malaria; and hemorrhagic fever viruses, such as Ebola, Sudan, Marburg, and Lassa, as well as therapeutic vaccines for HIV, chronic Hepatitis B infections, and solid tumor cancers. The company is developing GEO-CM04S1, a vaccine candidate that is in Phase 2 clinical trial for the treatment of preventive COVID-19; Gedeptin, a novel patented product/technology for the treatment of solid tumors, and Phase 1/2 clinical trial for the treatment of advanced head and neck squamous cell carcinoma; and GEO-CM02, a pan-coronavirus vaccine. In addition, it is developing GEO-ZM02, a vaccine candidate, which is in preclinical trial for the treatment of GEO-ZM02, a vaccine candidate, which is in preclinical trial for the treatment of Zika; GEO-MM02 treatment for malaria; other infectious disease vaccines for the treatment of fever viruses, such as Ebola, Sudan, and Marburg; GEO-LM01 for the treatment of Lassa fever. It has collaboration and partnership agreements with the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases of the National Institutes of Health; U.S. Department of Defense; Emory University; and the Burnet Institute. GeoVax Labs, Inc. was incorporated in 1988 and is headquartered in Smyrna, Georgia.