Critical Contrast: Cellectis (NASDAQ:CLLS) versus AstraZeneca (NASDAQ:AZN)

Cellectis (NASDAQ:CLLS) and AstraZeneca (NASDAQ:AZN) are both medical companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their risk, earnings, analyst recommendations, dividends, valuation, profitability and institutional ownership.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current recommendations for Cellectis and AstraZeneca, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Cellectis	0	0	1	0	3.00
AstraZeneca	0	1	4	0	2.80

Cellectis presently has a consensus price target of $4.00, indicating a potential upside of 50.94%. AstraZeneca has a consensus price target of $86.00, indicating a potential upside of 16.11%. Given Cellectis’ stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Cellectis is more favorable than AstraZeneca.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

63.9% of Cellectis shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 20.4% of AstraZeneca shares are owned by institutional investors. 16.4% of Cellectis shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Profitability

This table compares Cellectis and AstraZeneca’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Cellectis	-100.69%	-68.05%	-21.53%
AstraZeneca	14.68%	32.84%	12.87%

Risk & Volatility

Cellectis has a beta of 3.03, meaning that its stock price is 203% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, AstraZeneca has a beta of 0.36, meaning that its stock price is 64% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Cellectis and AstraZeneca”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Cellectis	$49.22 million	2.99	-$36.76 million	($0.82)	-3.23
AstraZeneca	$54.07 billion	4.25	$7.04 billion	$2.66	27.85

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

Summary

AstraZeneca beats Cellectis on 9 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Cellectis

Cellectis S.A., a clinical stage biotechnological company, develops immuno-oncology products based on gene-edited T-cells that express chimeric antigen receptors to target and eradicate cancer cells. The company is developing UCART19, an allogeneic T-cell product candidate for the treatment of CD19-expressing hematologic malignancies, such as acute lymphoblastic leukemia; ALLO-501 and ALLO-501A to treat relapsed or refractory for non-hodgkin lymphoma (NHL); and ALLO-715 for the treatment of multiple myeloma. It also develops UCART22 to treat B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia; UCARTCS1 and ALLO-605 for the treatment of multiple myeloma; ALLO-316 for renal cell carcinoma; UCART123 for the treatment of acute myeloid leukemia; and UCART 20×22 for relapsed or refractory B-Cell NHL. The company has strategic alliances with Allogene Therapeutics, Inc. and Les Laboratoires Servier; research collaboration and exclusive license agreement with Iovance Biotherapeutics; and collaboration and license agreement with Cytovia, as well as a collaboration agreement with AstraZeneca to develop novel cell and gene therapy candidate products. Cellectis S.A. was founded in 1999 and is headquartered in Paris, France.

About AstraZeneca

AstraZeneca PLC, a biopharmaceutical company, focuses on the discovery, development, manufacture, and commercialization of prescription medicines. The company’s marketed products include Tagrisso, Imfinzi, Lynparza, Calquence, Enhertu, Orpathys, Truqap, Zoladex, Faslodex, Farxiga, Brilinta, Lokelma, Roxadustat, Andexxa, Crestor, Seloken, Onglyza, Bydureon, Fasenra, Breztri, Symbicort, Saphnelo, Tezspire, Pulmicort, Bevespi, and Daliresp for cardiovascular, renal, metabolism, and oncology. Its marketed products also comprise Vaxzevria, Beyfortus, Synagis, FluMist, Soliris, Ultomiris, Strensiq, Koselugo, and Kanuma for covid-19 and rare disease. The company serves primary care and specialty care physicians through distributors and local representative offices in the United Kingdom, rest of Europe, the Americas, Asia, Africa, and Australasia. It has a collaboration agreement with Neurimmune AG to develop and commercialize NI006; BenevolentAI for drug discovery for systemic lupus erythematosus; and Absci Corporation for AI-driven drug discovery against an oncology target. The company was formerly known as Zeneca Group PLC and changed its name to AstraZeneca PLC in April 1999. AstraZeneca PLC was incorporated in 1992 and is headquartered in Cambridge, the United Kingdom.