Cerus (CERS) Competitors

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

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 favor 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 53.82% of users gave STAAR Surgical an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
STAAR Surgical	Outperform Votes 289 53.82%	Underperform Votes 248 46.18%
Cerus	Outperform Votes 570 72.34%	Underperform Votes 218 27.66%

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

96.7% of STAAR Surgical shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 78.4% of Cerus shares are owned by institutional investors. 1.0% of STAAR Surgical shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 5.6% of Cerus shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Do analysts prefer STAA or CERS?

STAAR Surgical currently has a consensus price target of $24.63, suggesting a potential upside of 40.96%. Cerus has a consensus price target of $3.50, suggesting a potential upside of 146.48%. 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

Does the media prefer STAA or CERS?

In the previous week, Cerus had 1 more articles in the media than STAAR Surgical. MarketBeat recorded 7 mentions for Cerus and 6 mentions for STAAR Surgical. Cerus' average media sentiment score of 1.41 beat STAAR Surgical's score of 0.77 indicating that Cerus is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
STAAR Surgical	1 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	3 Neutral mention(s)	1 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Cerus	3 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	0 Neutral mention(s)	1 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Which has more risk and volatility, STAA or CERS?

STAAR Surgical has a beta of 0.63, indicating that its share price is 37% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Cerus has a beta of 1.55, indicating that its share price is 55% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Which has higher valuation and earnings, STAA or CERS?

STAAR Surgical has higher revenue and earnings than Cerus. Cerus is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than STAAR Surgical, 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	3.10	-$20.21M	-$1.44	-12.13
Cerus	$185.14M	1.47	-$37.49M	-$0.10	-14.20

Summary

Cerus beats STAAR Surgical on 11 of the 18 factors compared between the two stocks.