Critical Analysis: BioCryst Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:BCRX) vs. Prime Medicine (NYSE:PRME)

BioCryst Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:BCRX) and Prime Medicine (NYSE:PRME) are both medical companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their earnings, risk, valuation, profitability, institutional ownership, dividends and analyst recommendations.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent ratings and recommmendations for BioCryst Pharmaceuticals and Prime Medicine, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
BioCryst Pharmaceuticals	0	1	8	0	2.89
Prime Medicine	0	2	4	1	2.86

BioCryst Pharmaceuticals currently has a consensus target price of $16.56, suggesting a potential upside of 64.40%. Prime Medicine has a consensus target price of $11.80, suggesting a potential upside of 912.88%. Given Prime Medicine’s higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Prime Medicine is more favorable than BioCryst Pharmaceuticals.

Profitability

This table compares BioCryst Pharmaceuticals and Prime Medicine’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
BioCryst Pharmaceuticals	-30.01%	N/A	-24.06%
Prime Medicine	N/A	-107.87%	-74.97%

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares BioCryst Pharmaceuticals and Prime Medicine”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
BioCryst Pharmaceuticals	$503.49 million	4.19	-$226.54 million	($0.26)	-38.73
Prime Medicine	$3.85 million	39.77	-$198.13 million	($1.61)	-0.72

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

Volatility and Risk

BioCryst Pharmaceuticals has a beta of 1.08, indicating that its stock price is 8% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Prime Medicine has a beta of 1.9, indicating that its stock price is 90% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

85.9% of BioCryst Pharmaceuticals shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 70.4% of Prime Medicine shares are owned by institutional investors. 4.8% of BioCryst Pharmaceuticals shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 23.5% of Prime Medicine shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Summary

Prime Medicine beats BioCryst Pharmaceuticals on 8 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About BioCryst Pharmaceuticals

BioCryst Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a biotechnology company, develops oral small-molecule and protein therapeutics to treat rare diseases. The company markets peramivir injection, an intravenous neuraminidase inhibitor for the treatment of acute uncomplicated influenza under the RAPIVAB, RAPIACTA, and PERAMIFLU names; and ORLADEYO, an oral serine protease inhibitor to treat hereditary angioedema. It is also developing BCX10013, an oral factor D inhibitor for complement-mediated diseases. The company has collaborations and in-license relationships with the Torii Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd.; Seqirus UK Limited; Shionogi & Co., Ltd.; Green Cross Corporation; National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases; Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority; the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; and The University of Alabama at Birmingham, as well as Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University and Industrial Research, Ltd. BioCryst Pharmaceuticals, Inc. was founded in 1986 and is headquartered in Durham, North Carolina.

About Prime Medicine

Prime Medicine, Inc., a biotechnology company, delivers genetic therapies to address the spectrum of diseases by deploying gene editing technology. The company offers Prime Editors with a Prime Editor protein, comprising a fusion between a Cas protein and a reverse transcriptase enzyme; and a pegRNA, which targets the Prime Editor to a specific genomic location and provides a template for making the desired edit to the target DNA sequence. It has a research collaboration with Cimeio Therapeutics to develop Prime Edited Shielded-Cell & Immunotherapy Pairs for genetic diseases, acute myeloid leukemia, and myelodysplastic syndrome. The company was incorporated in 2019 and is based in Cambridge, Massachusetts.