Analyzing enGene (NASDAQ:ENGN) and Vaxart (NASDAQ:VXRT)

Vaxart (NASDAQ:VXRT) and enGene (NASDAQ:ENGN) are both small-cap medical companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their earnings, institutional ownership, dividends, valuation, analyst recommendations, profitability and risk.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and recommmendations for Vaxart and enGene, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Vaxart	0	0	2	0	3.00
enGene	0	0	10	1	3.09

Vaxart presently has a consensus target price of $3.00, suggesting a potential upside of 292.41%. enGene has a consensus target price of $29.78, suggesting a potential upside of 327.23%. Given enGene’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe enGene is more favorable than Vaxart.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

18.0% of Vaxart shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 64.2% of enGene shares are held by institutional investors. 2.6% of Vaxart shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 13.7% of enGene shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Volatility & Risk

Vaxart has a beta of 0.62, suggesting that its share price is 38% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, enGene has a beta of -0.65, suggesting that its share price is 165% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Vaxart and enGene”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Vaxart	$20.14 million	8.63	-$82.46 million	($0.41)	-1.86
enGene	N/A	N/A	-$55.14 million	($0.58)	-12.02

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

Profitability

This table compares Vaxart and enGene’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Vaxart	-431.61%	-110.46%	-62.78%
enGene	N/A	-16.69%	-14.27%

Summary

enGene beats Vaxart on 10 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Vaxart

Vaxart, Inc., a clinical-stage biotechnology company, discovers and develops oral recombinant protein vaccines based on its proprietary oral vaccine platform. The company’s product pipeline includes norovirus vaccine, a bivalent oral tablet vaccine in Phase 2 clinical trial for the GI.1 and GII.4 norovirus strains; coronavirus vaccine, which is in Phase 2 clinical trial, for the treatment of SARS-CoV-2 infection; seasonal influenza vaccine, which is in Phase 2 clinical trial, to treat H1 influenza infection; and human papillomavirus therapeutic vaccine, which is in preclinical stage, that targets HPV-16 and HPV-18 for cervical cancers and precancerous cervical lesions. It has a license agreement with Altesa Biosciences, Inc. to develop and commercialize Vapendavir, a capsid-binding broad-spectrum antiviral. Vaxart, Inc. is headquartered in South San Francisco, California.

About enGene

enGene Holdings Inc., through its subsidiary enGene, Inc., operates as a clinical-stage biotechnology company that develops genetic medicines through the delivery of therapeutics to mucosal tissues and other organs. Its lead product candidate is EG-70 (detalimogene voraplasmid), which is a non-viral immunotherapy to treat non-muscle invasive bladder cancer patients with carcinoma-in-situ (Cis), who are unresponsive to treatment with Bacillus Calmette-Guérin. The company was founded in 2023 and is based in Saint-Laurent, Canada.