Head-To-Head Analysis: Tenaya Therapeutics (NASDAQ:TNYA) and Vaxart (NASDAQ:VXRT)

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

Volatility & Risk

Tenaya Therapeutics has a beta of 2.72, indicating that its share price is 172% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Vaxart has a beta of 0.62, indicating that its share price is 38% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent ratings and target prices for Tenaya Therapeutics and Vaxart, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Tenaya Therapeutics	0	0	6	0	3.00
Vaxart	0	0	2	0	3.00

Tenaya Therapeutics presently has a consensus target price of $17.33, suggesting a potential upside of 530.30%. Vaxart has a consensus target price of $3.00, suggesting a potential upside of 406.76%. Given Tenaya Therapeutics’ higher possible upside, research analysts plainly believe Tenaya Therapeutics is more favorable than Vaxart.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Tenaya Therapeutics and Vaxart”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Tenaya Therapeutics	N/A	N/A	-$124.08 million	($1.44)	-1.91
Vaxart	$20.14 million	6.69	-$82.46 million	($0.41)	-1.44

Vaxart has higher revenue and earnings than Tenaya Therapeutics. Tenaya Therapeutics 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 Tenaya Therapeutics and Vaxart’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Tenaya Therapeutics	N/A	-86.17%	-71.14%
Vaxart	-431.61%	-110.46%	-62.78%

Insider and Institutional Ownership

90.5% of Tenaya Therapeutics shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 18.0% of Vaxart shares are owned by institutional investors. 32.8% of Tenaya Therapeutics shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 2.6% of Vaxart shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Summary

Tenaya Therapeutics beats Vaxart on 7 of the 12 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Tenaya Therapeutics

Tenaya Therapeutics, Inc., a biotechnology company, discovers, develops, and delivers therapies for heart disease in the United States. It develops its products through gene editing, cellular regeneration, and gene addition. The company is developing TN-201, a gene therapy for myosin binding protein C3-associated hypertrophic cardiomyopathy which is in phase 1 clinical trial; TN-301, a small molecule for heart failure with preserved ejection fraction which is in phase 1 clinical trial; and TN-401, a gene therapy for plakophilin 2-associated arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy which is in preclinical stage. It also develops an adeno-associated virus-based gene therapy designed to deliver the dworf gene for patient with dilated cardiomyopathy; and reprogramming program for heart failure due to prior myocardial infarction. Tenaya Therapeutics, Inc. was incorporated in 2016 and is headquartered in South San Francisco, California.

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.