Critical Review: uniQure (NASDAQ:QURE) & Exicure (NASDAQ:XCUR)

uniQure (NASDAQ:QURE) and Exicure (NASDAQ:XCUR) are both small-cap medical companies, but which is the superior stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, dividends, risk, earnings, profitability and valuation.

Risk & Volatility

uniQure has a beta of 0.36, indicating that its stock price is 64% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Exicure has a beta of 3.84, indicating that its stock price is 284% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation and Earnings

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

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
uniQure	$27.12 million	28.32	-$308.48 million	($4.93)	-2.88
Exicure	$500,000.00	66.87	-$16.91 million	($2.07)	-6.20

Exicure has lower revenue, but higher earnings than uniQure. Exicure is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than uniQure, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

This table compares uniQure and Exicure’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
uniQure	-837.80%	-188.82%	-32.17%
Exicure	N/A	-190.90%	-36.75%

Insider & Institutional Ownership

78.8% of uniQure shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 42.8% of Exicure shares are held by institutional investors. 4.7% of uniQure shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 3.9% of Exicure 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.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent ratings and price targets for uniQure and Exicure, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
uniQure	0	3	6	1	2.80
Exicure	0	0	0	0	0.00

uniQure currently has a consensus target price of $38.89, suggesting a potential upside of 173.87%. Given uniQure’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, research analysts clearly believe uniQure is more favorable than Exicure.

Summary

uniQure beats Exicure on 10 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About uniQure

uniQure N.V. develops treatments for patients suffering from rare and other devastating diseases. It offers HEMGENIX that has completed Phase III HOPE-B pivotal trial for the treatment of hemophilia B. The company also develops AMT-130, a gene therapy that is in Phase I/II clinical study for the treatment of Huntington's disease. In addition, it is developing AMT-162, which is in preclinical trial for the treatment of superoxide dismutase 1- amyotrophic lateral sclerosis; AMT-260 that is in preclinical trial to treat temporal lobe epilepsy; AMT-191, which is in preclinical trial for the treatment of fabry disease; AMT-161 that is in preclinical trial to treat amyotrophic lateral sclerosis caused by mutations; AMT-240, which is in preclinical trial to for the treatment of autosomal dominant Alzheimer's disease; and AMT-210 that is in preclinical trial to treat Parkinson's disease. The company was founded in 1998 and is headquartered in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

About Exicure

Exicure, Inc., an early-stage biotechnology company, develops nucleic acid therapies targeting ribonucleic acid against validated targets. The company's preclinical candidate includes SCN9A that is in preclinical studies for the treatment of chronic pain. It also develops immuno-oncology therapeutics based on its proprietary SNA technology. Exicure, Inc. was founded in 2011 and is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois.