AVROBIO (NASDAQ:AVRO) and HilleVax (NASDAQ:HLVX) Financial Contrast

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

Profitability

This table compares HilleVax and AVROBIO’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
HilleVax	N/A	-48.17%	-38.05%
AVROBIO	N/A	-74.86%	-65.11%

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent ratings and price targets for HilleVax and AVROBIO, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
HilleVax	0	0	3	0	3.00
AVROBIO	0	2	0	0	2.00

HilleVax presently has a consensus price target of $30.67, suggesting a potential upside of 105.54%. AVROBIO has a consensus price target of $2.00, suggesting a potential upside of 57.48%. Given HilleVax’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, research analysts plainly believe HilleVax is more favorable than AVROBIO.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

86.4% of HilleVax shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 62.6% of AVROBIO shares are held by institutional investors. 29.3% of HilleVax shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 9.2% of AVROBIO shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares HilleVax and AVROBIO’s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
HilleVax	N/A	N/A	-$123.57 million	($3.04)	-4.91
AVROBIO	N/A	N/A	$12.16 million	($0.10)	-12.70

AVROBIO is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than HilleVax, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Risk & Volatility

HilleVax has a beta of 0.65, meaning that its share price is 35% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, AVROBIO has a beta of 1.22, meaning that its share price is 22% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

HilleVax beats AVROBIO on 8 of the 11 factors compared between the two stocks.

About HilleVax

HilleVax, Inc., a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, focuses on developing and commercializing novel vaccines. The company develops HIL-214, a virus-like particle-based vaccine candidate for the prevention of moderate-to-severe acute gastroenteritis caused by norovirus and related illness. The company was formerly known as MokshaCo, Inc. and changed its name to HilleVax, Inc. in February 2021. HilleVax, Inc. was founded in 2019 and is headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts.

About AVROBIO

AVROBIO, Inc., a clinical-stage gene therapy company, develops ex vivo lentiviral-based gene therapies to treat rare diseases following a single dose worldwide. Its gene therapies employ hematopoietic stem cells that are harvested from the patient and then modified with a lentiviral vector to insert the equivalent of a functional copy of the gene that is mutated in the target disease. The company's pipeline includes AVR-RD-02, which is in phase 1/2 clinical trial for the treatment of Gaucher disease type 1, as well as to treat Gaucher disease type 3; AVR-RD-03 that is in preclinical stage for the treatment of Pompe disease; AVR-RD-04, which is in phase 1/2 clinical trial for the treatment of cystinosis; and AVR-RD-05 that is in preclinical stage for the treatment of Hunter syndrome. The company was incorporated in 2015 and is headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts.