Head-To-Head Analysis: Mesoblast (NASDAQ:MESO) and Adverum Biotechnologies (NASDAQ:ADVM)

Mesoblast (NASDAQ:MESO) and Adverum Biotechnologies (NASDAQ:ADVM) are both small-cap medical companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their profitability, institutional ownership, dividends, valuation, analyst recommendations, earnings and risk.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent ratings and target prices for Mesoblast and Adverum Biotechnologies, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Mesoblast	0	1	2	1	3.00
Adverum Biotechnologies	0	1	5	0	2.83

Mesoblast presently has a consensus price target of $18.00, suggesting a potential upside of 51.26%. Adverum Biotechnologies has a consensus price target of $27.83, suggesting a potential upside of 626.72%. Given Adverum Biotechnologies’ higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Adverum Biotechnologies is more favorable than Mesoblast.

Risk and Volatility

Mesoblast has a beta of 3.4, meaning that its stock price is 240% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Adverum Biotechnologies has a beta of 1.14, meaning that its stock price is 14% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

1.4% of Mesoblast shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 48.2% of Adverum Biotechnologies shares are held by institutional investors. 18.8% of Mesoblast shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 4.2% of Adverum Biotechnologies shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Profitability

This table compares Mesoblast and Adverum Biotechnologies’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Mesoblast	N/A	N/A	N/A
Adverum Biotechnologies	N/A	-65.14%	-40.52%

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Mesoblast and Adverum Biotechnologies”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Mesoblast	$5.67 million	266.65	-$87.96 million	N/A	N/A
Adverum Biotechnologies	$1.00 million	79.67	-$117.17 million	($5.99)	-0.64

Mesoblast has higher revenue and earnings than Adverum Biotechnologies.

Summary

Mesoblast beats Adverum Biotechnologies on 9 of the 12 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Mesoblast

Mesoblast Limited engages in the development of regenerative medicine products in Australia, the United States, Singapore, and Switzerland. The company offers products in the areas of cardiovascular, spine orthopedic disorder, oncology, hematology, and immune-mediated and inflammatory diseases. Its proprietary regenerative medicine technology platform is based on specialized cells known as mesenchymal lineage cells. The company offers Remestemcel-L that is in Phase III clinical trials for the treatment of systemic inflammatory diseases, including steroid refractory acute graft versus host disease, acute respiratory distress syndrome, and biologic refractory inflammatory bowel disease; and Remestemcel-L, which is in Phase III clinical trials to treat chronic heart failure and chronic low back pain due to degenerative disc disease. It is also developing MPC-300-IV to treat biologic refractory rheumatoid arthritis diabetic nephropathy; and MPC-25-IC for the treatment or prevention of acute myocardial infarction. It has strategic partnerships with Tasly Pharmaceutical Group to offer MPC-150-IM for heart failure and MPC-25-IC for heart attacks in China; JCR Pharmaceuticals Co. Ltd. to treat wound healing in patients with epidermolysis bullosa; and Grünenthal to develops and commercializes cell therapy for the treatment of chronic low back pain. The company was incorporated in 2004 and is headquartered in Melbourne, Australia.

About Adverum Biotechnologies

Adverum Biotechnologies, Inc., a clinical-stage company, develops gene therapy product candidates to treat ocular diseases. Its lead product candidate is ixoberogene soroparvovec (ADVM-022), a single intravitreal injection gene therapy candidate used for the treatment of patients with wet age-related macular degeneration and diabetic macular edema which is in phase 2 clinical trials. The company is developing ADVM-062 (AAV.7m8-L-opsin), a novel gene therapy product candidate for the treatment of blue cone monochromacy via a single IVT injection. Adverum Biotechnologies, Inc. has license and collaboration agreements with University of California; GenSight Biologics; Lexeo Therapeutics; and Virovek, Inc. The company was formerly known as Avalanche Biotechnologies, Inc. and changed its name to Adverum Biotechnologies, Inc. in May 2016. Adverum Biotechnologies, Inc. was incorporated in 2006 and is headquartered in Redwood City, California.