Critical Comparison: Novavax (NASDAQ:NVAX) and TScan Therapeutics (NASDAQ:TCRX)

Novavax (NASDAQ:NVAX) and TScan Therapeutics (NASDAQ:TCRX) are both small-cap medical companies, but which is the superior stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their valuation, risk, profitability, institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, dividends and earnings.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

53.0% of Novavax shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 82.8% of TScan Therapeutics shares are owned by institutional investors. 1.0% of Novavax shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 2.8% of TScan Therapeutics shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Novavax and TScan Therapeutics”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Novavax	$682.16 million	1.88	-$545.06 million	($1.33)	-6.01
TScan Therapeutics	$2.82 million	32.98	-$89.22 million	($1.15)	-1.51

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

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and target prices for Novavax and TScan Therapeutics, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Novavax	1	2	4	0	2.43
TScan Therapeutics	0	0	6	0	3.00

Novavax currently has a consensus target price of $18.00, indicating a potential upside of 125.28%. TScan Therapeutics has a consensus target price of $9.33, indicating a potential upside of 436.40%. Given TScan Therapeutics’ stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe TScan Therapeutics is more favorable than Novavax.

Volatility and Risk

Novavax has a beta of 2.92, indicating that its share price is 192% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, TScan Therapeutics has a beta of 0.91, indicating that its share price is 9% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Novavax and TScan Therapeutics’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Novavax	-32.18%	N/A	-17.05%
TScan Therapeutics	-1,188.88%	-58.72%	-36.02%

Summary

TScan Therapeutics beats Novavax on 9 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Novavax

Novavax, Inc., a biotechnology company, that promotes improved health by discovering, developing, and commercializing vaccines to protect against serious infectious diseases. It offers vaccine platform that combines a recombinant protein approach, nanoparticle technology, and its patented Matrix-M adjuvant to enhance the immune response. It focuses on urgent health challenges, which is evaluating vaccines for COVID-19, influenza, and COVID-19 influenza combination. The company is commercializing a COVID-19 vaccine, NVX-CoV2373 under the brand names of Nuvaxovid, Covovax, and Novavax COVID-19 Vaccine, adjuvanted for adult and adolescent populations as a primary series and for both homologous and heterologous booster indications. It is also developing R21/Matrix-M adjuvant malaria vaccine. Novavax, Inc. was incorporated in 1987 and is headquartered in Gaithersburg, Maryland.

About TScan Therapeutics

TScan Therapeutics, Inc., a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, develops T cell receptor-engineered T cell (TCR-T) therapies for the treatment of patients with cancer in the United States. The company's lead product candidates include TSC-100 and TSC-101 that is in Phase I clinical trial for the treatment of patients with hematologic malignancies to eliminate residual disease and prevent relapse after allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation. It also develops TSC-200, TSC-201, TSC-203, and TSC-204, which are in Phase 1 clinical trial, for the treatment of solid tumors; and TSC-202 to treat solid tumors. In addition, the company develops vaccines for infectious diseases, such as SARS-CoV-2. It has collaborations with Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research, Inc. To discover and develop novel TCR-T therapies; and Amgen Inc. to identify antigens recognized by T cells in patients with Crohn's disease using TargetScan, a proprietary target discovery platform. TScan Therapeutics, Inc. was incorporated in 2018 and is headquartered in Waltham, Massachusetts.