Head-To-Head Comparison: Vericel (NASDAQ:VCEL) vs. GRAIL (NASDAQ:GRAL)

Vericel (NASDAQ:VCEL) and GRAIL (NASDAQ:GRAL) are both medical companies, but which is the superior stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, dividends, profitability, valuation, risk and earnings.

Volatility and Risk

Vericel has a beta of 1.12, meaning that its stock price is 12% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, GRAIL has a beta of 3.15, meaning that its stock price is 215% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current ratings and target prices for Vericel and GRAIL, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Vericel	1	2	5	0	2.50
GRAIL	1	4	4	0	2.33

Vericel presently has a consensus price target of $55.40, indicating a potential upside of 55.23%. GRAIL has a consensus price target of $67.88, indicating a potential upside of 1.99%. Given Vericel’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities analysts clearly believe Vericel is more favorable than GRAIL.

Valuation & Earnings

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

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Vericel	$276.26 million	6.60	$16.52 million	$0.42	84.98
GRAIL	$147.17 million	19.41	-$408.35 million	($10.37)	-6.42

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

Profitability

This table compares Vericel and GRAIL’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Vericel	7.35%	6.41%	4.61%
GRAIL	-253.22%	-16.42%	-14.34%

Summary

Vericel beats GRAIL on 10 of the 12 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Vericel

Vericel Corporation, a commercial-stage biopharmaceutical company, engages in the research, development, manufacture, and distribution of cellular therapies for sports medicine and severe burn care markets in North America. The company markets autologous cell therapy products comprising MACI, an autologous cultured chondrocytes on porcine collagen membrane for the repair of symptomatic, and single or multiple full-thickness cartilage defects of the knee; Epicel, a permanent skin replacement humanitarian use device for the treatment of adult and pediatric patients with deep-dermal or full-thickness burns; and NexoBrid, a biological orphan product for eschar removal in adults with deep partial-thickness and/or full-thickness thermal burns. The company was formerly known as Aastrom Biosciences, Inc. Vericel Corporation was incorporated in 1989 and is headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

About GRAIL

GRAIL, Inc. operates as a commercial-stage healthcare company, which engages in the development of a technology for early detection of cancer. It utilizes machine learning, software, and automation to detect and identify multiple deadly cancer types in earlier stages. The company was founded by Jeffrey T. Huber, William H. Rastetter, Mostafa Ronaghi, and Richard D. Klausner on September 11, 2015 and is headquartered in Menlo Park, CA.