Novavax (NASDAQ:NVAX) & Elevation Oncology (NASDAQ:ELEV) Critical Analysis

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

Insider and Institutional Ownership

83.7% of Elevation Oncology shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 53.0% of Novavax shares are owned by institutional investors. 8.1% of Elevation Oncology shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 1.0% of Novavax shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Risk and Volatility

Elevation Oncology has a beta of 1.65, meaning that its share price is 65% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Novavax has a beta of 3.15, meaning that its share price is 215% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current recommendations and price targets for Elevation Oncology and Novavax, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Elevation Oncology	0	7	3	0	2.30
Novavax	1	2	4	0	2.43

Elevation Oncology presently has a consensus target price of $3.39, suggesting a potential upside of 777.13%. Novavax has a consensus target price of $18.00, suggesting a potential upside of 200.00%. Given Elevation Oncology’s higher probable upside, research analysts clearly believe Elevation Oncology is more favorable than Novavax.

Profitability

This table compares Elevation Oncology and Novavax’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Elevation Oncology	N/A	-59.73%	-40.05%
Novavax	-32.18%	N/A	-17.05%

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Elevation Oncology and Novavax”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Elevation Oncology	N/A	N/A	-$45.70 million	($0.81)	-0.48
Novavax	$682.16 million	1.41	-$545.06 million	($1.33)	-4.51

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

Summary

Elevation Oncology beats Novavax on 7 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Elevation Oncology

Elevation Oncology, Inc., an oncology company, focuses on the discovery and development of cancer therapies to treat patients across a range of solid tumors with significant unmet medical needs. The company's lead candidate is EO-3021, an antibody-drug conjugate designed to target Claudin 18.2, a clinically validated molecular target. Its EO-3021 selectively delivers a cytotoxic payload directly to cancer cells expressing Claudin 18.2. Elevation Oncology, Inc. has a license agreement with CSPC Megalith Biopharmaceutical Co., Ltd. to develop and commercialize EO-3021. The company was formerly known as 14ner Oncology, Inc. and changed its name to Elevation Oncology, Inc. in February 2020. The company was incorporated in 2019 and is based in Boston, Massachusetts.

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.