Geron (GERN) Competitors

BioCryst Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:BCRX) and Geron (NASDAQ:GERN) are both medical companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, risk, earnings, dividends, media sentiment, institutional ownership, valuation, community ranking and profitability.

Which has more risk and volatility, BCRX or GERN?

BioCryst Pharmaceuticals has a beta of 1.08, suggesting that its share price is 8% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Geron has a beta of 0.76, suggesting that its share price is 24% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Do analysts recommend BCRX or GERN?

BioCryst Pharmaceuticals presently has a consensus price target of $16.56, indicating a potential upside of 60.27%. Geron has a consensus price target of $5.06, indicating a potential upside of 264.21%. Given Geron's higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Geron is more favorable than BioCryst Pharmaceuticals.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
BioCryst Pharmaceuticals	0 Sell rating(s)	1 Hold rating(s)	8 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.89
Geron	0 Sell rating(s)	3 Hold rating(s)	5 Buy rating(s)	1 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.78

Does the MarketBeat Community believe in BCRX or GERN?

Geron received 2 more outperform votes than BioCryst Pharmaceuticals when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 69.93% of users gave Geron an outperform vote while only 67.12% of users gave BioCryst Pharmaceuticals an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
BioCryst Pharmaceuticals	Outperform Votes 498 67.12%	Underperform Votes 244 32.88%
Geron	Outperform Votes 500 69.93%	Underperform Votes 215 30.07%

Which has preferable valuation and earnings, BCRX or GERN?

Geron has lower revenue, but higher earnings than BioCryst Pharmaceuticals. BioCryst Pharmaceuticals is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Geron, 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
BioCryst Pharmaceuticals	$503.49M	4.29	-$226.54M	-$0.26	-39.73
Geron	$116.29M	7.61	-$184.13M	-$0.21	-6.62

Does the media prefer BCRX or GERN?

In the previous week, BioCryst Pharmaceuticals had 2 more articles in the media than Geron. MarketBeat recorded 11 mentions for BioCryst Pharmaceuticals and 9 mentions for Geron. BioCryst Pharmaceuticals' average media sentiment score of 1.04 beat Geron's score of 0.91 indicating that BioCryst Pharmaceuticals is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
BioCryst Pharmaceuticals	7 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	3 Neutral mention(s)	1 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Geron	5 Very Positive mention(s)	2 Positive mention(s)	2 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Is BCRX or GERN more profitable?

BioCryst Pharmaceuticals has a net margin of -30.01% compared to Geron's net margin of -682.48%. BioCryst Pharmaceuticals' return on equity of 0.00% beat Geron's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
BioCryst Pharmaceuticals	-30.01%	N/A	-24.06%
Geron	-682.48%	-67.53%	-45.46%

Do insiders and institutionals have more ownership in BCRX or GERN?

85.9% of BioCryst Pharmaceuticals shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 73.7% of Geron shares are owned by institutional investors. 4.8% of BioCryst Pharmaceuticals shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 7.4% of Geron shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Summary

BioCryst Pharmaceuticals beats Geron on 10 of the 19 factors compared between the two stocks.