Novavax (NASDAQ:NVAX) and REGENXBIO (NASDAQ:RGNX) Head to Head Comparison

Novavax (NASDAQ:NVAX) and REGENXBIO (NASDAQ:RGNX) are both small-cap medical companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their profitability, valuation, analyst recommendations, earnings, institutional ownership, risk and dividends.

Profitability

This table compares Novavax and REGENXBIO’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Novavax	-32.18%	N/A	-17.05%
REGENXBIO	-283.19%	-70.65%	-41.68%

Risk & Volatility

Novavax has a beta of 3.21, suggesting that its stock price is 221% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, REGENXBIO has a beta of 1.11, suggesting that its stock price is 11% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations and price targets for Novavax and REGENXBIO, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Novavax	1	2	4	0	2.43
REGENXBIO	0	1	5	0	2.83

Novavax currently has a consensus target price of $19.00, indicating a potential upside of 182.32%. REGENXBIO has a consensus target price of $31.63, indicating a potential upside of 255.74%. Given REGENXBIO’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe REGENXBIO is more favorable than Novavax.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

53.0% of Novavax shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 88.1% of REGENXBIO shares are held by institutional investors. 1.0% of Novavax shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 12.8% of REGENXBIO shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Valuation and Earnings

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

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Novavax	$1.21 billion	0.90	-$545.06 million	$2.65	2.54
REGENXBIO	$156.72 million	2.85	-$263.49 million	($3.11)	-2.86

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

Summary

REGENXBIO beats Novavax on 8 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Novavax

Novavax, Inc., a biotechnology company, that promotes improved health by discovering, developing, and commercializing vaccines to protect against serious infectious diseases. It offers vaccine platform that combines a recombinant protein approach, nanoparticle technology, and its patented Matrix-M adjuvant to enhance the immune response. It focuses on urgent health challenges, which is evaluating vaccines for COVID-19, influenza, and COVID-19 influenza combination. The company is commercializing a COVID-19 vaccine, NVX-CoV2373 under the brand names of Nuvaxovid, Covovax, and Novavax COVID-19 Vaccine, adjuvanted for adult and adolescent populations as a primary series and for both homologous and heterologous booster indications. It is also developing R21/Matrix-M adjuvant malaria vaccine. Novavax, Inc. was incorporated in 1987 and is headquartered in Gaithersburg, Maryland.

About REGENXBIO

REGENXBIO Inc., a clinical-stage biotechnology company, provides gene therapies that deliver functional genes to cells with genetic defects in the United States. Its gene therapy product candidates are based on NAV Technology Platform, a proprietary adeno-associated virus gene delivery platform. The company’s products in pipeline includes ABBV-RGX-314 for the treatment of wet age-related macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy, and other chronic retinal diseases; and RGX-202, which is in Phase I/II clinical trial for the treatment of Duchenne muscular dystrophy. It also develops RGX-121 for the treatment of mucopolysaccharidosis type II that is in Phase III clinical trial; RGX-111 for treating mucopolysaccharidosis type I; RGX-181 for the treatment of late infantile neuronal ceroid lipofuscinosis type II; and RGX-381 to treat the ocular manifestations of CLN2 disease. In addition, the company licenses its NAV Technology Platform to other biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies. Further, it has a collaboration and license agreement with AbbVie Global Enterprises Ltd. to develop ABBV-RGX-314 outside the United States. REGENXBIO Inc. was incorporated in 2008 and is headquartered in Rockville, Maryland.