Head to Head Survey: Barinthus Biotherapeutics (NASDAQ:BRNS) versus Clearside Biomedical (NASDAQ:CLSD)

Clearside Biomedical (NASDAQ:CLSD) and Barinthus Biotherapeutics (NASDAQ:BRNS) are both small-cap medical companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their risk, profitability, dividends, institutional ownership, valuation, earnings and analyst recommendations.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

18.8% of Clearside Biomedical shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 25.2% of Barinthus Biotherapeutics shares are held by institutional investors. 6.7% of Clearside Biomedical shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 8.0% of Barinthus Biotherapeutics 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.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and price targets for Clearside Biomedical and Barinthus Biotherapeutics, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Clearside Biomedical	0	5	1	0	2.17
Barinthus Biotherapeutics	1	0	2	0	2.33

Clearside Biomedical presently has a consensus target price of $63.00, indicating a potential upside of 1,515.38%. Barinthus Biotherapeutics has a consensus target price of $3.00, indicating a potential upside of 130.77%. Given Clearside Biomedical’s higher possible upside, equities analysts clearly believe Clearside Biomedical is more favorable than Barinthus Biotherapeutics.

Profitability

This table compares Clearside Biomedical and Barinthus Biotherapeutics’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Clearside Biomedical	-665.19%	N/A	-124.15%
Barinthus Biotherapeutics	N/A	-54.70%	-44.75%

Volatility and Risk

Clearside Biomedical has a beta of 2.05, indicating that its stock price is 105% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Barinthus Biotherapeutics has a beta of -0.71, indicating that its stock price is 171% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Clearside Biomedical and Barinthus Biotherapeutics”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Clearside Biomedical	$1.66 million	12.31	-$34.35 million	($5.55)	-0.70
Barinthus Biotherapeutics	$14.97 million	3.54	-$61.07 million	($1.73)	-0.75

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

Summary

Barinthus Biotherapeutics beats Clearside Biomedical on 8 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Clearside Biomedical

Clearside Biomedical, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company, focuses on the revolutionizing the delivery of therapies to the back of the eye through the suprachoroidal space. It offers XIPERE, a triamcinolone acetonide suprachoroidal injectable suspension for the treatment of uveitis macular edema. It also develops CLS-AX, an axitinib injectable suspension for suprachoroidal injection, which is in Phase IIb clinical trial to treat wet AMD. The company has a collaboration with Bausch Health, Arctic Vision, REGENXBIO, Inc., BioCryst Pharmaceuticals, Inc., and Aura Biosciences. Clearside Biomedical, Inc. was incorporated in 2011 and is headquartered in Alpharetta, Georgia.

About Barinthus Biotherapeutics

Barinthus Biotherapeutics plc, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, engages in development of novel T cell immunotherapeutic candidates designed to guide the immune system to overcome chronic infectious diseases, autoimmunity, and cancer. The company's development pipeline includes VTP-300, an immunotherapeutic candidate under phase 2 studies as a potential component of a functional cure for chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection; VTP-200, a non-surgical product candidate under phase 2 studies for treating persistent high-risk human papillomavirus (HPV) infection; VTP-1000, an autoimmune preclinical candidate designed to treat patients with celiac disease; VTP-1100 product candidate to target HPV16+ cancers; and VTP-850/850, a second-generation immunotherapeutic candidate under phase 2 studies to treat recurrent prostate cancer. It is also involved in the development of partnered candidates, such as AB-729-202, which is under phase 2a studies for the treatment of patients with chronic HBV infection; VTP-600, an immunotherapy candidate under phase 1 studies as a potential treatment for NSCLC in combination with standard of care treatment, chemotherapy, and pembrolizumab; VTP-500, a prophylactic vaccine product candidate under phase 1 studies to prevent infection and subsequent disease caused by the MERS coronavirus; and VTP-400, a prophylactic vaccine candidate under phase 1 studies to prevent shingles in adults aged 50 years and older. In addition, the company offers Vaxzevria (formerly VTP-900 and AZD1222), a prophylactic vaccine for the prevention of COVID-19 Infection. Further, it has license, research and development, and collaboration agreements with OUI, NIH, IMC, CanSino, CRUK; VOLT; and Arbutus. The company was formerly known as Vaccitech plc and changed its name to Barinthus Biotherapeutics plc in November 2023. Barinthus Biotherapeutics plc was founded in 2016 and is headquartered in Didcot, the United Kingdom.