Head to Head Review: Aura Biosciences (NASDAQ:AURA) and VectivBio (NASDAQ:VECT)

VectivBio (NASDAQ:VECT) and Aura Biosciences (NASDAQ:AURA) are both medical companies, but which is the better business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their profitability, earnings, valuation, institutional ownership, dividends, analyst recommendations and risk.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

70.9% of Aura Biosciences shares are held by institutional investors. 9.7% of VectivBio shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 5.9% of Aura Biosciences shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

This table compares VectivBio and Aura Biosciences’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
VectivBio	N/A	N/A	N/A
Aura Biosciences	N/A	-41.32%	-35.47%

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current ratings and target prices for VectivBio and Aura Biosciences, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
VectivBio	0	2	3	0	2.60
Aura Biosciences	0	0	2	0	3.00

VectivBio presently has a consensus target price of $24.33, indicating a potential upside of 44.41%. Aura Biosciences has a consensus target price of $23.50, indicating a potential upside of 147.89%. Given Aura Biosciences’ stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Aura Biosciences is more favorable than VectivBio.

Risk & Volatility

VectivBio has a beta of 0.1, indicating that its stock price is 90% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Aura Biosciences has a beta of 0.19, indicating that its stock price is 81% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares VectivBio and Aura Biosciences’ top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
VectivBio	$27.34 million	N/A	-$93.74 million	N/A	N/A
Aura Biosciences	N/A	N/A	-$58.76 million	($2.00)	-4.74

Aura Biosciences has lower revenue, but higher earnings than VectivBio.

About VectivBio

VectivBio Holding AG, a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company, focuses on the discovery, development, and commercialization of medicines for treatments of severe rare conditions. It develops apraglutide, a long-acting synthetic peptide analog of glucagon-like peptide-2 that is in Phase III clinical trial for the treatment of patients with short bowel syndrome-intestinal failure (SBS-IF), as well as apraglutide is in Phase II clinical trial for SBS-IF in patients with colon-in-continuity anatomy. The company is also developing apraglutide, which is in Phase II clinical trial for patients with steroid-refractory gastrointestinal acute versus host disease (aGvHD). VectivBio Holding AG was incorporated in 2019 and is headquartered in Basel, Switzerland. As of June 29, 2023, VectivBio Holding AG operates as a subsidiary of Ironwood Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

About Aura Biosciences

Aura Biosciences, Inc. operates as a biotechnology company that develops therapies to treat cancer. The company develops virus-like drug conjugates (VDC) technology platform for treating tumors of high unmet need in ocular and urologic oncology. It is developing AU-011, a VDC candidate for the treatment of primary choroidal melanoma that is in phase III clinical trial. The company also develops AU-011 for additional ocular oncology indications, including choroidal metastases and is in Phase 2 dose-escalation trial. The company was incorporated in 2009 and is headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts.