Financial Analysis: Humacyte (NASDAQ:HUMA) vs. Editas Medicine (NASDAQ:EDIT)

Humacyte (NASDAQ:HUMA – Get Rating) and Editas Medicine (NASDAQ:EDIT – Get Rating) are both small-cap medical companies, but which is the superior stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their dividends, valuation, institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, profitability, risk and earnings.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Humacyte and Editas Medicine’s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Humacyte	$1.26 million	240.61	-$26.48 million	$0.32	9.19
Editas Medicine	$19.71 million	29.29	-$220.43 million	($3.21)	-2.61

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

Profitability

This table compares Humacyte and Editas Medicine’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Humacyte	1,971.30%	-74.59%	-35.49%
Editas Medicine	-1,118.32%	-50.28%	-39.20%

Volatility & Risk

Humacyte has a beta of 1.22, indicating that its stock price is 22% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Editas Medicine has a beta of 1.9, indicating that its stock price is 90% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

13.1% of Humacyte shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 69.7% of Editas Medicine shares are held by institutional investors. 25.0% of Humacyte shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 1.3% of Editas Medicine shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current recommendations and price targets for Humacyte and Editas Medicine, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Humacyte	1	0	1	0	2.00
Editas Medicine	2	7	5	0	2.21

Humacyte currently has a consensus price target of $5.58, suggesting a potential upside of 89.91%. Editas Medicine has a consensus price target of $15.33, suggesting a potential upside of 83.19%. Given Humacyte’s higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Humacyte is more favorable than Editas Medicine.

Summary

Humacyte beats Editas Medicine on 8 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Humacyte

(Get Rating)

Humacyte, Inc. engages in the development and manufacture of off-the-shelf, implantable, and bioengineered human tissues for the treatment of diseases and conditions across a range of anatomic locations in multiple therapeutic areas. The company using its proprietary and scientific technology platform to engineer and manufacture human acellular vessels (HAVs). Its investigational HAVs are designed to be easily implanted into any patient without inducing a foreign body response or leading to immune rejection. The company is developing a portfolio of HAVs, which would target the vascular repair, reconstruction, and replacement market, including vascular trauma; arteriovenous access for hemodialysis; peripheral arterial disease; and coronary artery bypass grafting, as well as developing its HAVs for pediatric heart surgery and cellular therapy delivery, including pancreatic islet cell transplantation to treat Type 1 diabetes. The company was founded in 2004 and is headquartered in Durham, North Carolina.

About Editas Medicine

(Get Rating)

Editas Medicine, Inc. engages in the development and commercialization of genome editing technology. Its technology includes clustered, regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR), and CRISPR associated protein 9 (Cas9). The company was founded by Feng Zhang, Jennifer A. Doudna, George McDonald Church, J. Keith Joung and David R. Liu in September 2013 and is headquartered in Cambridge, MA.