Financial Comparison: Fortrea (NASDAQ:FTRE) vs. Curis (NASDAQ:CRIS)

Fortrea (NASDAQ:FTRE) and Curis (NASDAQ:CRIS) are both small-cap medical companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their valuation, earnings, risk, analyst recommendations, dividends, institutional ownership and profitability.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Fortrea and Curis”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Fortrea	$2.71 billion	0.60	-$986.20 million	($4.91)	-3.51
Curis	$9.44 million	2.06	-$7.58 million	($1.19)	-0.42

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

Insider and Institutional Ownership

30.0% of Curis shares are held by institutional investors. 0.7% of Fortrea shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 5.4% of Curis shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Risk and Volatility

Fortrea has a beta of 2.12, meaning that its stock price is 112% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Curis has a beta of 3.05, meaning that its stock price is 205% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Fortrea and Curis’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Fortrea	-16.50%	9.51%	1.96%
Curis	-80.29%	N/A	-181.57%

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent ratings for Fortrea and Curis, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Fortrea	1	5	5	0	2.36
Curis	2	0	1	0	1.67

Fortrea currently has a consensus target price of $17.25, indicating a potential upside of 0.07%. Curis has a consensus target price of $17.00, indicating a potential upside of 3,300.00%. Given Curis’ higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Curis is more favorable than Fortrea.

Summary

Curis beats Fortrea on 8 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Fortrea

Fortrea Holdings Inc., a contract research organization, primarily engages in the provision of biopharmaceutical product and medical device development services worldwide. The company operates through two segments: Clinical Services and Enabling Services. The Clinical Services segment provides across the clinical pharmacology and clinical development spectrum. The Enabling Services segment provides patient access and clinical trial technology solutions to customers that streamline complex randomization and optimize the trial drug supply process. The company offers delivery models that include full service, functional service provider, and hybrid service structures. It also offers phase I-IV clinical trial management, differentiated technology enabled trial solutions, and post approval services, as well as consulting services. The company serves pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and medical device organizations. Fortrea Holdings Inc. was incorporated in 2023 and is headquartered in Durham, North Carolina.

About Curis

Curis, Inc., a biotechnology company, engages in the discovery and development of drug candidates for the treatment of human cancers in the United States. Its clinical stage drug candidates include Emavusertib, an oral small molecule IRAK4 kinase inhibitor, which is in a Phase 1/2 open-label, single arm expansion trial in patients with relapsed or refractory, or R/R, AML and high-risk myelodysplastic syndromes. The company’s pipeline also includes Fimepinostat, an oral dual inhibitor of HDAC and PI3K enzymes for the treatment of patients with relapsed or refractory diffuse large B-cell lymphoma; CA-170, an oral, small molecule antagonist designated as CA-170 that selectively targets PD-L1 and VISTA; and CA-327, an oral, small molecule, TIM3/PD-L1, which is a molecule antagonist of PD-L1 and TIM3. It has collaboration agreement with Genentech Inc., or Genentech and F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd, or Roche, for the commercialization of Erivedge, an orally-administered small molecule hedgehog signaling pathway antagonist for the treatment of advanced basal cell carcinoma, or BCC; Aurigene Discovery Technologies Limited for the discovery, development, and commercialization of small molecule compounds in the areas of immuno-oncology and precision oncology; and also licensed four programs under the Aurigene collaboration, including emavusertib. Curis, Inc. was incorporated in 2000 and is headquartered in Lexington, Massachusetts.