Cerus (NASDAQ:CERS) and West Pharmaceutical Services (NYSE:WST) are both medical companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their profitability, valuation, earnings, dividends, risk, analyst recommendations and institutional ownership.
Institutional & Insider Ownership
82.1% of Cerus shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 92.6% of West Pharmaceutical Services shares are held by institutional investors. 6.5% of Cerus shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 1.6% of West Pharmaceutical Services shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.
Analyst Recommendations
This is a breakdown of recent recommendations and price targets for Cerus and West Pharmaceutical Services, as provided by MarketBeat.
| Sell Ratings | Hold Ratings | Buy Ratings | Strong Buy Ratings | Rating Score |
---|
Cerus | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 3.00 |
West Pharmaceutical Services | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 2.67 |
Cerus presently has a consensus target price of $7.8333, suggesting a potential upside of 27.79%. West Pharmaceutical Services has a consensus target price of $310.00, suggesting a potential upside of 4.55%. Given Cerus' stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities analysts clearly believe Cerus is more favorable than West Pharmaceutical Services.
Risk & Volatility
Cerus has a beta of 1.37, meaning that its stock price is 37% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, West Pharmaceutical Services has a beta of 1.13, meaning that its stock price is 13% more volatile than the S&P 500.
Profitability
This table compares Cerus and West Pharmaceutical Services' net margins, return on equity and return on assets.
| Net Margins | Return on Equity | Return on Assets |
---|
Cerus | -73.72% | -63.47% | -30.82% |
West Pharmaceutical Services | 14.69% | 19.01% | 12.78% |
Earnings & Valuation
This table compares Cerus and West Pharmaceutical Services' revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.
| Gross Revenue | Price/Sales Ratio | Net Income | Earnings Per Share | Price/Earnings Ratio |
---|
Cerus | $74.65 million | 13.81 | $-71,240,000.00 | ($0.51) | -12.02 |
West Pharmaceutical Services | $1.84 billion | 11.90 | $241.70 million | $3.24 | 91.52 |
West Pharmaceutical Services has higher revenue and earnings than Cerus. Cerus is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than West Pharmaceutical Services, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Summary
West Pharmaceutical Services beats Cerus on 8 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.