Critical Analysis: PharmaCyte Biotech (OTCMKTS:PMCBD) and Aura Biosciences (NASDAQ:AURA)

PharmaCyte Biotech (OTCMKTS:PMCBD) and Aura Biosciences (NASDAQ:AURA) are both small-cap medical companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their earnings, risk, analyst recommendations, dividends, institutional ownership, valuation and profitability.

Risk & Volatility

PharmaCyte Biotech has a beta of 0.27, meaning that its stock price is 73% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Aura Biosciences has a beta of 0.3, meaning that its stock price is 70% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent ratings and recommmendations for PharmaCyte Biotech and Aura Biosciences, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
PharmaCyte Biotech	0	0	0	0	0.00
Aura Biosciences	0	0	5	2	3.29

Aura Biosciences has a consensus price target of $23.00, indicating a potential upside of 199.87%. Given Aura Biosciences’ stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Aura Biosciences is more favorable than PharmaCyte Biotech.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares PharmaCyte Biotech and Aura Biosciences”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
PharmaCyte Biotech	N/A	N/A	-$3.83 million	N/A	N/A
Aura Biosciences	N/A	N/A	-$76.41 million	($1.73)	-4.43

Institutional and Insider Ownership

0.0% of PharmaCyte Biotech shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 96.8% of Aura Biosciences shares are owned by institutional investors. 5.4% of Aura Biosciences shares are owned by 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.

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
PharmaCyte Biotech	N/A	-49.09%	-43.39%
Aura Biosciences	N/A	-41.57%	-36.43%

Summary

Aura Biosciences beats PharmaCyte Biotech on 9 of the 10 factors compared between the two stocks.

About PharmaCyte Biotech

PharmaCyte Biotech, Inc. is a clinical stage biotechnology company, which engages in the development and commercialization of treatments for cancer and diabetes. It focuses on a proprietary cellulose-based live cell encapsulation technology called Cell-in-a-Box, which will be used as a platform for the development of treatments for inoperable pancreatic cancer and other solid cancerous tumors, and diabetes. The company was founded on October 28, 1996 and is headquartered in Laguna Hills, CA.

About Aura Biosciences

Aura Biosciences, Inc., a clinical-stage biotechnology company, develops precision immunotherapies to treat a range of solid tumors. The company's proprietary platform enables the targeting of a range of solid tumors using virus-like particles conjugated with drugs or loaded with nucleic acids to create virus-like drug conjugates. Its lead candidate is bel-sar, which is in late-stage clinical development for the treatment of patients with primary choroidal melanoma and other ocular oncology indications, as well as in early-stage clinical development in bladder cancer. The company also focuses on assessing the safety and efficacy of bel-sar in treating a range of other solid tumors, including bladder cancer as an alternative to bacillus calmetteguérin therapy. Aura Biosciences, Inc. was incorporated in 2009 and is headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts.