Cerus (CERS) Competitors

STAAR Surgical (NASDAQ:STAA) and Cerus (NASDAQ:CERS) are both small-cap medical companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their dividends, institutional ownership, community ranking, valuation, analyst recommendations, media sentiment, risk, earnings and profitability.

Do insiders & institutionals have more ownership in STAA or CERS?

96.7% of STAAR Surgical shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 78.4% of Cerus shares are held by institutional investors. 1.0% of STAAR Surgical shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 3.4% of Cerus shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Which has stronger valuation & earnings, STAA or CERS?

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

Company	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
STAAR Surgical	$279.13M	3.27	-$20.21M	-$1.44	-12.81
Cerus	$185.14M	1.29	-$37.49M	-$0.10	-12.50

Do analysts prefer STAA or CERS?

STAAR Surgical presently has a consensus target price of $24.63, suggesting a potential upside of 33.47%. Cerus has a consensus target price of $3.50, suggesting a potential upside of 180.00%. Given Cerus' stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Cerus is more favorable than STAAR Surgical.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
STAAR Surgical	1 Sell rating(s)	9 Hold rating(s)	1 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.00
Cerus	0 Sell rating(s)	0 Hold rating(s)	2 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	3.00

Which has more risk and volatility, STAA or CERS?

STAAR Surgical has a beta of 0.65, indicating that its stock price is 35% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Cerus has a beta of 1.58, indicating that its stock price is 58% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Does the media favor STAA or CERS?

In the previous week, STAAR Surgical had 11 more articles in the media than Cerus. MarketBeat recorded 13 mentions for STAAR Surgical and 2 mentions for Cerus. STAAR Surgical's average media sentiment score of 1.20 beat Cerus' score of 0.84 indicating that STAAR Surgical is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
STAAR Surgical	9 Very Positive mention(s)	2 Positive mention(s)	0 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Cerus	1 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	1 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Is STAA or CERS more profitable?

STAAR Surgical has a net margin of -6.44% compared to Cerus' net margin of -11.60%. STAAR Surgical's return on equity of -3.35% beat Cerus' return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
STAAR Surgical	-6.44%	-3.35%	-2.67%
Cerus	-11.60%	-40.55%	-11.12%

Does the MarketBeat Community prefer STAA or CERS?

Cerus received 281 more outperform votes than STAAR Surgical when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 72.34% of users gave Cerus an outperform vote while only 53.92% of users gave STAAR Surgical an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
STAAR Surgical	Outperform Votes 289 53.92%	Underperform Votes 247 46.08%
Cerus	Outperform Votes 570 72.34%	Underperform Votes 218 27.66%

Summary

STAAR Surgical and Cerus tied by winning 9 of the 18 factors compared between the two stocks.