Contrasting Valneva (NASDAQ:VALN) & Medtronic (NYSE:MDT)

Medtronic (NYSE:MDT) and Valneva (NASDAQ:VALN) are both medical companies, but which is the superior stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their risk, earnings, dividends, profitability, valuation, analyst recommendations and institutional ownership.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

82.1% of Medtronic shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 11.4% of Valneva shares are held by institutional investors. 0.3% of Medtronic shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 14.9% of Valneva shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Risk and Volatility

Medtronic has a beta of 0.71, indicating that its stock price is 29% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Valneva has a beta of 1.8, indicating that its stock price is 80% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current recommendations for Medtronic and Valneva, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Medtronic	0	10	15	1	2.65
Valneva	1	0	3	0	2.50

Medtronic presently has a consensus price target of $110.74, indicating a potential upside of 28.34%. Valneva has a consensus price target of $15.00, indicating a potential upside of 45.35%. Given Valneva’s higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Valneva is more favorable than Medtronic.

Profitability

This table compares Medtronic and Valneva’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Medtronic	13.00%	14.82%	7.88%
Valneva	-67.64%	-76.81%	-26.33%

Earnings & Valuation

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

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Medtronic	$33.54 billion	3.30	$4.66 billion	$3.59	24.03
Valneva	$197.56 million	4.50	-$13.25 million	($1.44)	-7.17

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

Summary

Medtronic beats Valneva on 11 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Medtronic

Medtronic plc develops, manufactures, and sells device-based medical therapies to healthcare systems, physicians, clinicians, and patients worldwide. Its Cardiovascular Portfolio segment offers implantable cardiac pacemakers, cardioverter defibrillators, and cardiac resynchronization therapy devices; cardiac ablation products; insertable cardiac monitor systems; TYRX products; and remote monitoring and patient-centered software. It also provides aortic valves, surgical valve replacement and repair products, endovascular stent grafts and accessories, and transcatheter pulmonary valves; and percutaneous coronary intervention products, percutaneous angioplasty balloons, and products. The company's Medical Surgical Portfolio segment offers surgical stapling devices, vessel sealing instruments, wound closure, electrosurgery products, surgical artificial intelligence and robotic-assisted surgery products, hernia mechanical devices, mesh implants, gynecology and lung products, and various therapies to treat diseases, as well as products in the fields of minimally invasive gastrointestinal and hepatologic diagnostics and therapies, patient monitoring, airway management and ventilation therapies, and renal disease. Its Neuroscience Portfolio segment offers products for spinal surgeons; neurosurgeons; neurologists; pain management specialists; anesthesiologists; orthopedic surgeons; urologists; urogynecologists; interventional radiologists; ear, nose, and throat specialists; and systems that incorporate energy surgical instruments. It also provides image-guided surgery and intra-operative imaging systems and robotic guidance systems used in robot assisted spine procedures; and therapies for vasculature in and around the brain. The company's Diabetes Operating Unit segment offers insulin pumps and consumables, continuous glucose monitoring systems, smart insulin pen systems, and consumables and supplies. The company was founded in 1949 and is headquartered in Dublin, Ireland.

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.