Head to Head Review: Genprex (NASDAQ:GNPX) and Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA)

Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA) and Genprex (NASDAQ:GNPX) are both medical companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their institutional ownership, valuation, risk, dividends, analyst recommendations, earnings and profitability.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

75.3% of Moderna shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 14.1% of Genprex shares are held by institutional investors. 10.9% of Moderna shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.4% of Genprex shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current ratings and price targets for Moderna and Genprex, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Moderna	5	13	2	0	1.85
Genprex	1	0	0	0	1.00

Moderna currently has a consensus price target of $31.87, suggesting a potential downside of 40.51%. Given Moderna’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, research analysts plainly believe Moderna is more favorable than Genprex.

Profitability

This table compares Moderna and Genprex’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Moderna	-145.16%	-30.15%	-22.95%
Genprex	N/A	-877.15%	-382.74%

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Moderna and Genprex”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Moderna	$1.94 billion	10.88	-$2.82 billion	($7.27)	-7.37
Genprex	N/A	N/A	-$21.11 million	($26.50)	-0.08

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

Risk and Volatility

Moderna has a beta of 1.29, suggesting that its share price is 29% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Genprex has a beta of -0.77, suggesting that its share price is 177% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Moderna beats Genprex on 10 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Moderna

Moderna, Inc., a biotechnology company, discovers, develops, and commercializes messenger RNA therapeutics and vaccines for the treatment of infectious diseases, immuno-oncology, rare diseases, autoimmune, and cardiovascular diseases in the United States, Europe, and internationally. Its respiratory vaccines include COVID-19, influenza, and respiratory syncytial virus, spikevax, and hMPV/PIV3 vaccines; latent vaccines comprise cytomegalovirus, epstein-barr virus, herpes simplex virus, varicella zoster virus, and human immunodeficiency virus vaccines; public health vaccines consists of Zika, Nipah, Mpox vaccines; and infectious diseases vaccines, such as lyme and norovirus vaccines. The company also offers systemic secreted and cell surface therapeutics; cancer vaccines, such as personalized cancer, KRAS, and checkpoint vaccines; intratumoral immuno-oncology products; rare disease intracellular therapeutics; and inhaled pulmonary therapeutics. It has strategic alliances and collaborations with AstraZeneca; Merck & Co., Inc; Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated; Vertex Pharmaceuticals (Europe) Limited; Chiesi Farmaceutici S.p.A.; Metagenomi, Inc.; Carisma Therapeutics, Inc.; CytomX Therapeutics; Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency; Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority; Institute for Life Changing Medicines; and The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The company was formerly known as Moderna Therapeutics, Inc. and changed its name to Moderna, Inc. in August 2018. Moderna, Inc. was founded in 2010 and is headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

About Genprex

Genprex, Inc., a clinical-stage gene therapy company, focuses on developing gene-based therapies for patients with cancer and diabetes in the United States. The company's lead product candidate is REQORSA (GPX-001), which is in preclinical trials to treat non-small cell lung cancer and small cell lung cancer; and GPX-002, which is in preclinical trials to treat type 1 and type 2 diabetes. Its product pipeline comprises Acclaim-1, which is in phase 2a clinical trial for the treatment of non-small cell lung cancer; Acclaim-2, which is in phase phase 1/2 clinical trial for the treatment of non-small cell lung cancer; and Acclaim-3, which is in phase 1/2 clinical trial for the treatment of small cell lung cancer. The company also develops ONC-001, REQORSA as a monotherapy, which is in phase 1 clinical trial to treat advance non-small cell lung cancer; and ONC-002, REQORSA with Tarceva, which is in phase 2 clinical trial to treat non-small cell lung cancer. Genprex, Inc. was incorporated in 2009 and is headquartered in Austin, Texas.