Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA – Get Free Report) and Arcturus Therapeutics (NASDAQ:ARCT – Get Free Report) are both healthcare companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, dividends, profitability, earnings, risk and valuation.
Risk & Volatility
Moderna has a beta of 1.16, meaning that its share price is 16% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Arcturus Therapeutics has a beta of 2.62, meaning that its share price is 162% more volatile than the S&P 500.
Analyst Recommendations
This is a breakdown of current ratings and recommmendations for Moderna and Arcturus Therapeutics, as provided by MarketBeat.com.
| Sell Ratings | Hold Ratings | Buy Ratings | Strong Buy Ratings | Rating Score | |
| Moderna | 4 | 15 | 6 | 0 | 2.08 |
| Arcturus Therapeutics | 1 | 0 | 6 | 2 | 3.00 |
Moderna presently has a consensus price target of $113.75, suggesting a potential downside of 54.26%. Arcturus Therapeutics has a consensus price target of $24.50, suggesting a potential upside of 163.16%. Given Arcturus Therapeutics’ stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Arcturus Therapeutics is more favorable than Moderna.
Profitability
This table compares Moderna and Arcturus Therapeutics’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.
| Net Margins | Return on Equity | Return on Assets | |
| Moderna | -110.46% | -25.79% | -15.85% |
| Arcturus Therapeutics | -285.92% | -46.79% | -36.50% |
Earnings & Valuation
This table compares Moderna and Arcturus Therapeutics”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.
| Gross Revenue | Price/Sales Ratio | Net Income | Earnings Per Share | Price/Earnings Ratio | |
| Moderna | $1.94 billion | 51.76 | -$2.82 billion | ($7.10) | -35.03 |
| Arcturus Therapeutics | $82.03 million | 3.27 | -$65.78 million | ($3.08) | -3.02 |
Arcturus Therapeutics has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Moderna. Moderna is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Arcturus Therapeutics, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Institutional & Insider Ownership
75.3% of Moderna shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 94.5% of Arcturus Therapeutics shares are held by institutional investors. 10.8% of Moderna shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 17.8% of Arcturus Therapeutics shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.
Summary
Arcturus Therapeutics beats Moderna on 8 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.
About Moderna
Moderna, Inc. is a biotechnology company that develops medicines and vaccines using messenger RNA (mRNA) technology. Its platform is designed to instruct cells to produce proteins that can help prevent or treat disease. The company’s commercial products include Spikevax, a vaccine against COVID-19, and mRESVIA, a vaccine against respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). Moderna also researches potential mRNA-based vaccines and treatments for infectious diseases, cancer, and rare diseases. Founded in 2010 as Moderna Therapeutics, the company is headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
About Arcturus Therapeutics
Arcturus Therapeutics Holdings Inc. is a biotechnology company founded in 2013 and headquartered in San Diego, California. It develops RNA medicines and vaccines, using its LUNAR lipid-mediated delivery technology and self-amplifying RNA platform to deliver genetic instructions to cells. The company’s pipeline includes investigational treatments for rare diseases, such as ARCT-032 for cystic fibrosis and ARCT-810 for ornithine transcarbamylase deficiency. It has also developed ARCT-154, a self-amplifying mRNA COVID-19 vaccine approved in Japan as Kostaive, and works with partners on the development and commercialization of its products.
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