Beam Therapeutics (NASDAQ:BEAM) & Vaxcyte (NASDAQ:PCVX) Head to Head Comparison

Beam Therapeutics (NASDAQ:BEAM) and Vaxcyte (NASDAQ:PCVX) are both medical companies, but which is the superior stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their valuation, risk, dividends, institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, profitability and earnings.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current recommendations and price targets for Beam Therapeutics and Vaxcyte, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Beam Therapeutics	0	2	11	2	3.00
Vaxcyte	0	0	9	1	3.10

Beam Therapeutics currently has a consensus price target of $48.75, suggesting a potential upside of 186.51%. Vaxcyte has a consensus price target of $136.50, suggesting a potential upside of 330.82%. Given Vaxcyte’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Vaxcyte is more favorable than Beam Therapeutics.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Beam Therapeutics and Vaxcyte”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Beam Therapeutics	$63.58 million	26.91	-$132.53 million	($4.61)	-3.69
Vaxcyte	N/A	N/A	-$402.27 million	($3.99)	-7.94

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

Institutional and Insider Ownership

99.7% of Beam Therapeutics shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 96.8% of Vaxcyte shares are owned by institutional investors. 4.2% of Beam Therapeutics shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 3.1% of Vaxcyte shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Risk and Volatility

Beam Therapeutics has a beta of 2.35, meaning that its share price is 135% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Vaxcyte has a beta of 1.27, meaning that its share price is 27% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Beam Therapeutics and Vaxcyte’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Beam Therapeutics	-41.07%	-16.22%	-10.94%
Vaxcyte	N/A	-23.53%	-22.20%

Summary

Beam Therapeutics beats Vaxcyte on 9 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Beam Therapeutics

Beam Therapeutics Inc., a biotechnology company, engages in the development of precision genetic medicines for patients suffering from serious diseases in the United States. It develops BEAM-101 for the treatment of sickle cell disease or beta-thalassemia; and BEAM-302, a liver-targeting LNP formulation to treat severe alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency; BEAM-201, an anti-CD7 CAR-T product candidate, which is in Phase 1/2 clinical trials for the treatment of refractory T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia/T cell lymphoblastic lymphoma; and BEAM-301, a liver-targeting LNP formulation for the treatment of glycogen storage disease 1a. The company has research collaboration agreement with Pfizer Inc., focus on in vivo base editing programs for targets rare genetic diseases of the liver, muscle, and central nervous system; Apellis Pharmaceuticals to conduct preclinical research on target specific genes within the complement system in various organs, including the eye, liver, and brain; Verve Therapeutics, Inc., for cardiovascular disease treatments; Sana Biotechnology, Inc., to research, develop, and commercialize rights to CRISPR Cas12b for cell therapy programs; and Orbital Therapeutics design RNA for the prevention, treatment or diagnosis of human disease. Beam Therapeutics Inc. was incorporated in 2017 and is based in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

About Vaxcyte

Vaxcyte, Inc., a clinical-stage biotechnology vaccine company, develops novel protein vaccines to prevent or treat bacterial infectious diseases. Its lead vaccine candidate is VAX-24, a 24-valent investigational pneumococcal conjugate vaccine for the prevention of invasive pneumococcal disease. The company also develops VAX-31 to protect against emerging strains and to help address antibiotic resistance; VAX-A1, a novel conjugate vaccine candidate to prevent disease caused by Group A Streptococcus; VAX-PG, a novel protein vaccine candidate targeting keystone pathogen responsible for periodontitis; and VAX-GI to prevent Shigella, a bacterial illness. The company was formerly known as SutroVax, Inc. and changed its name to Vaxcyte, Inc. in May 2020. Vaxcyte, Inc. was incorporated in 2013 and is headquartered in San Carlos, California.