Ginkgo Bioworks (NYSE:DNA) versus Novavax (NASDAQ:NVAX) Head to Head Survey

Ginkgo Bioworks (NYSE:DNA) and Novavax (NASDAQ:NVAX) are both small-cap medical companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their earnings, analyst recommendations, valuation, institutional ownership, dividends, risk and profitability.

Volatility and Risk

Ginkgo Bioworks has a beta of 1.09, suggesting that its stock price is 9% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Novavax has a beta of 2.1, suggesting that its stock price is 110% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current ratings and recommmendations for Ginkgo Bioworks and Novavax, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Ginkgo Bioworks	3	2	1	0	1.67
Novavax	1	2	3	0	2.33

Ginkgo Bioworks presently has a consensus price target of $4.16, suggesting a potential downside of 57.55%. Novavax has a consensus price target of $17.83, suggesting a potential upside of 115.64%. Given Novavax’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Novavax is more favorable than Ginkgo Bioworks.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

78.6% of Ginkgo Bioworks shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 53.0% of Novavax shares are owned by institutional investors. 9.7% of Ginkgo Bioworks shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 1.0% of Novavax shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Earnings & Valuation

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

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Ginkgo Bioworks	$251.46 million	2.17	-$892.87 million	($13.08)	-0.75
Novavax	$983.71 million	1.35	-$545.06 million	($2.26)	-3.66

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

Profitability

This table compares Ginkgo Bioworks and Novavax’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Ginkgo Bioworks	-298.78%	-55.91%	-33.48%
Novavax	-32.18%	N/A	-17.20%

Summary

Novavax beats Ginkgo Bioworks on 10 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Ginkgo Bioworks

Ginkgo Bioworks Holdings, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, develops platform for cell programming in the United States. Its platform is used to program cells to enable biological production of products, such as novel therapeutics, food ingredients, and chemicals derived from petroleum. It serves pharma and biotech, agriculture, industrial and environment, food and nutrition, consumer and technology, and government and defense industries. Ginkgo Bioworks Holdings, Inc. was founded in 2008 and is headquartered 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.