Reviewing Minerva Neurosciences (NASDAQ:NERV) & Avita Medical (NASDAQ:RCEL)

Minerva Neurosciences (NASDAQ:NERV) and Avita Medical (NASDAQ:RCEL) are both medical companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, profitability, institutional ownership, risk, dividends, valuation and earnings.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

34.6% of Minerva Neurosciences shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 27.7% of Avita Medical shares are held by institutional investors. 8.6% of Minerva Neurosciences shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 2.8% of Avita Medical shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

This table compares Minerva Neurosciences and Avita Medical’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Minerva Neurosciences	N/A	-41.35%	-43.68%
Avita Medical	-67.07%	-632.62%	-71.64%

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent ratings and recommmendations for Minerva Neurosciences and Avita Medical, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Minerva Neurosciences	1	1	0	0	1.50
Avita Medical	2	2	2	0	2.00

Minerva Neurosciences currently has a consensus price target of $4.00, indicating a potential downside of 2.68%. Avita Medical has a consensus price target of $10.50, indicating a potential upside of 177.41%. Given Avita Medical’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Avita Medical is more favorable than Minerva Neurosciences.

Risk and Volatility

Minerva Neurosciences has a beta of -0.25, suggesting that its share price is 125% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Avita Medical has a beta of 1.58, suggesting that its share price is 58% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Minerva Neurosciences and Avita Medical”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Minerva Neurosciences	N/A	N/A	$1.44 million	($1.85)	-2.22
Avita Medical	$64.25 million	1.80	-$61.85 million	($1.81)	-2.09

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

Summary

Avita Medical beats Minerva Neurosciences on 7 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Minerva Neurosciences

Minerva Neurosciences, Inc., a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, focuses on the development and commercialization of product candidates for the treatment of central nervous system diseases. Its lead product candidate is roluperidone (MIN-101) for the treatment of negative symptoms in patients with schizophrenia, currently submitted an New Drug Application (NDA); and MIN-301, a soluble recombinant form of the neuregulin-1b1 protein for the treatment of Parkinson's disease and other neurodegenerative disorders. The company has a license agreement with Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma Corporation to develop, sell, and import roluperidone globally excluding Asia. Minerva Neurosciences, Inc. was incorporated in 2007 and is based in Burlington, Massachusetts.

About Avita Medical

AVITA Medical, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, operates as a regenerative medicine company in the United States and internationally. The company's lead product is the RECELL System, a cell harvesting device used for the treatment of thermal burn wounds, full-thickness skin defects, and repigmentation of stable depigmented vitiligo lesions. It develops RECELL GO to control the manual process of disaggregation, filtration, and soak time. The company was formerly known as AVITA Therapeutics, Inc. AVITA Medical, Inc. was incorporated in 2020 and is headquartered in Valencia, California.