Reviewing Histogen (NASDAQ:HSTO) & Viracta Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VIRX)

Histogen (NASDAQ:HSTO) and Viracta Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VIRX) 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, dividends, earnings, analyst recommendations, profitability, institutional ownership and risk.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and target prices for Histogen and Viracta Therapeutics, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Histogen	0	0	0	0	N/A
Viracta Therapeutics	0	1	3	0	2.75

Viracta Therapeutics has a consensus price target of $5.50, suggesting a potential upside of 2,260.52%. Given Viracta Therapeutics’ higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Viracta Therapeutics is more favorable than Histogen.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

31.4% of Viracta Therapeutics shares are owned by institutional investors. 3.3% of Histogen shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 10.7% of Viracta Therapeutics shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Histogen and Viracta Therapeutics”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Histogen	$19,000.00	48.90	-$10.62 million	($2.81)	-0.08
Viracta Therapeutics	N/A	N/A	-$51.06 million	($1.23)	-0.19

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

Profitability

This table compares Histogen and Viracta Therapeutics’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Histogen	N/A	N/A	N/A
Viracta Therapeutics	N/A	-449.60%	-92.47%

Risk and Volatility

Histogen has a beta of 1.2, suggesting that its share price is 20% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Viracta Therapeutics has a beta of 0.7, suggesting that its share price is 30% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Histogen beats Viracta Therapeutics on 6 of the 11 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Histogen

Histogen Inc., a clinical-stage therapeutics company, focuses on developing clinical and preclinical small molecule pan-caspase and caspase selective inhibitors that protect the body's natural process to restore immune function. The company's product candidates include emricasan for the treatment of acute bacterial skin and skin structure infections, as well as other infectious diseases. Its preclinical product candidates include CTS-2090 and CTS-2096, which are selective small molecule inhibitors of caspase-1 designed for the treatment of various inflammatory diseases. Histogen Inc. was founded in 2007 and is based in San Diego, California. On April 18, 2024, Histogen Inc. filed a voluntary petition for reorganization under Chapter 11 in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of California.

About Viracta Therapeutics

Viracta Therapeutics, Inc., a clinical-stage precision oncology company, focuses on the treatment and prevention of virus-associated cancers that impact patients worldwide. Its lead product candidate is Nana-val, an all-oral combination therapy of its proprietary investigational drug, nanatinostat, and the antiviral agent valganciclovir. The company's Nana-val is in various ongoing clinical trials, including NAVAL-1, an open-label Phase 2 basket trial for the treatment of multiple subtypes of relapsed/refractory Epstein-Barr virus-positive (EBV+) lymphoma, as well as an open-label Phase 1b/2 trial for the treatment of EBV+ recurrent or metastatic nasopharyngeal carcinoma and other EBV+ solid tumors. Its product pipeline also includes vecabrutinib, a clinical-stage product candidate; and VRx-510, a preclinical product candidate. The company is headquartered in Cardiff, California.