Contrasting Curis (NASDAQ:CRIS) and Fortrea (NASDAQ:FTRE)

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

Analyst Ratings

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

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

Curis presently has a consensus price target of $17.00, suggesting a potential upside of 3,702.28%. Fortrea has a consensus price target of $17.25, suggesting a potential upside of 2.19%. Given Curis’ higher possible upside, equities analysts clearly believe Curis is more favorable than Fortrea.

Valuation & Earnings

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

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Curis	$9.44 million	1.85	-$7.58 million	($1.19)	-0.38
Fortrea	$2.72 billion	0.59	-$986.20 million	($4.91)	-3.44

Curis has higher earnings, but lower revenue 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.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

30.0% of Curis shares are held by institutional investors. 5.4% of Curis shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.7% of Fortrea shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Profitability

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

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

Volatility & Risk

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

Summary

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

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.

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.