Head to Head Survey: Altimmune (NASDAQ:ALT) and CureVac (NASDAQ:CVAC)

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

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Altimmune and CureVac”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Altimmune	$40,000.00	9,920.52	-$88.09 million	($0.78)	-2.62
CureVac	$70.74 million	14.78	$175.50 million	$0.72	6.47

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

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings for Altimmune and CureVac, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Altimmune	1	1	8	0	2.70
CureVac	1	0	0	0	1.00

Altimmune presently has a consensus price target of $14.33, indicating a potential upside of 602.61%. Given Altimmune’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities research analysts clearly believe Altimmune is more favorable than CureVac.

Risk & Volatility

Altimmune has a beta of 0.06, meaning that its stock price is 94% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, CureVac has a beta of 1.77, meaning that its stock price is 77% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Altimmune	N/A	-31.41%	-26.96%
CureVac	199.92%	-23.03%	-19.09%

Institutional and Insider Ownership

78.0% of Altimmune shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 17.3% of CureVac shares are held by institutional investors. 1.6% of Altimmune shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 2.1% of CureVac shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Summary

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

About Altimmune

Altimmune, Inc., a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company, focuses on developing treatments for obesity and liver diseases. The company's lead product candidate, pemvidutide, a GLP-1/glucagon dual receptor agonist that is in Phase 2 trial for the treatment of obesity and metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis. It is also developing HepTcell, an immunotherapeutic product candidate, which is in Phase 2 clinical trial for patients chronically infected with the hepatitis B virus. The company was formerly known as Vaxin Inc. and changed its name to Altimmune, Inc. in September 2015. Altimmune, Inc. was founded in 1997 is headquartered in Gaithersburg, Maryland.

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.