Cerus (NASDAQ:CERS) vs. PURE Bioscience (OTCMKTS:PURE) Head to Head Comparison

PURE Bioscience (OTCMKTS:PURE) and Cerus (NASDAQ:CERS) are both small-cap medical companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, earnings, profitability, dividends, analyst recommendations, valuation and institutional ownership.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent ratings and price targets for PURE Bioscience and Cerus, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
PURE Bioscience	0	0	0	0	0.00
Cerus	1	0	1	0	2.00

Cerus has a consensus price target of $4.00, indicating a potential upside of 91.39%. Given Cerus’ stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Cerus is more favorable than PURE Bioscience.

Profitability

This table compares PURE Bioscience and Cerus’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
PURE Bioscience	-110.91%	N/A	-377.91%
Cerus	-8.01%	-27.58%	-7.64%

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares PURE Bioscience and Cerus”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
PURE Bioscience	$2.20 million	2.36	-$2.40 million	($0.03)	-1.55
Cerus	$180.27 million	2.23	-$20.92 million	($0.08)	-26.13

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

Volatility and Risk

PURE Bioscience has a beta of 0.51, indicating that its stock price is 49% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Cerus has a beta of 1.55, indicating that its stock price is 55% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

78.4% of Cerus shares are owned by institutional investors. 43.5% of PURE Bioscience shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 5.6% of Cerus 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

Cerus beats PURE Bioscience on 8 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About PURE Bioscience

PURE Bioscience, Inc. develops and commercializes antimicrobial products that provide solutions to the health and environmental challenges of pathogen and hygienic control in the United States and internationally. The company manufactures and distributes silver dihydrogen citrate (SDC), a non-toxic antimicrobial agent, which offers residual protection, as well as formulates with other compounds. It offers SDC-based disinfecting and sanitizing products, including PURE Hard Surface, a food contact surface sanitizer and disinfectant; PURE Control, a food contact processing aid for fresh produce and raw poultry; PURE Multi-Purpose and Floor Cleaner Concentrate to clean various resilient surfaces, including floors, glass, and food contact surfaces; and PURE Multi-Purpose Hi-Foam Cleaner Concentrate to clean stainless steel equipment, resilient floors, walls, and painted surfaces. The company also provides Axen30, a hard surface disinfectant; Axenohl, an antimicrobial formulation for use as a raw material ingredient in the manufacturing of consumer and commercial disinfecting and sanitizing products; and SILVÉRION, an antimicrobial formulation that is used against bacteria, viruses, yeasts, and molds. PURE Bioscience, Inc. was incorporated in 1992 and is headquartered in Rancho Cucamonga, California.

About Cerus

Cerus Corporation operates as a biomedical products company. The company focuses on developing and commercializing the INTERCEPT Blood System to enhance blood safety. Its INTERCEPT Blood System, a proprietary technology for controlling biological replication that is designed to reduce blood-borne pathogens in donated blood components intended for transfusion. The company offers INTERCEPT Blood Systems for platelets and plasma, which is designed to inactivate blood-borne pathogens in platelets and plasma donated for transfusion; INTERCEPT Blood System for red blood cells to inactivate blood-borne pathogens in red blood cells donated for transfusion; and INTERCEPT Blood System for Cryoprecipitation that uses its plasma system to produce pathogen reduced cryoprecipitated fibrinogen complex for the treatment and control of bleeding, including massive hemorrhage associated with fibrinogen deficiency, as well as pathogen reduced plasma, cryoprecipitate reduced. It sells platelet and plasma systems through its direct sales force and distributors in the United States, Europe, the Commonwealth of Independent States, the Middle East, Latin America, and internationally. Cerus Corporation was incorporated in 1991 and is headquartered in Concord, California.