uniQure (NASDAQ:QURE) versus Exicure (NASDAQ:XCUR) Head-To-Head Analysis

Exicure (NASDAQ:XCUR) and uniQure (NASDAQ:QURE) are both small-cap medical companies, but which is the superior stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their earnings, analyst recommendations, valuation, risk, dividends, institutional ownership and profitability.

Profitability

This table compares Exicure and uniQure’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Exicure	N/A	-190.90%	-36.75%
uniQure	-837.80%	-188.82%	-32.17%

Institutional and Insider Ownership

42.8% of Exicure shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 78.8% of uniQure shares are owned by institutional investors. 3.9% of Exicure shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 4.7% of uniQure shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Exicure and uniQure”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Exicure	$500,000.00	59.08	-$16.91 million	($2.07)	-5.48
uniQure	$27.12 million	25.40	-$308.48 million	($4.93)	-2.58

Exicure has higher earnings, but lower revenue than uniQure. Exicure is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than uniQure, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent ratings for Exicure and uniQure, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Exicure	0	0	0	0	0.00
uniQure	0	3	6	1	2.80

uniQure has a consensus price target of $38.89, suggesting a potential upside of 205.32%. Given uniQure’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe uniQure is more favorable than Exicure.

Risk & Volatility

Exicure has a beta of 3.84, suggesting that its share price is 284% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, uniQure has a beta of 0.36, suggesting that its share price is 64% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

uniQure beats Exicure on 10 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Exicure

Exicure, Inc., an early-stage biotechnology company, develops nucleic acid therapies targeting ribonucleic acid against validated targets. The company's preclinical candidate includes SCN9A that is in preclinical studies for the treatment of chronic pain. It also develops immuno-oncology therapeutics based on its proprietary SNA technology. Exicure, Inc. was founded in 2011 and is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois.

About uniQure

uniQure N.V. develops treatments for patients suffering from rare and other devastating diseases. It offers HEMGENIX that has completed Phase III HOPE-B pivotal trial for the treatment of hemophilia B. The company also develops AMT-130, a gene therapy that is in Phase I/II clinical study for the treatment of Huntington's disease. In addition, it is developing AMT-162, which is in preclinical trial for the treatment of superoxide dismutase 1- amyotrophic lateral sclerosis; AMT-260 that is in preclinical trial to treat temporal lobe epilepsy; AMT-191, which is in preclinical trial for the treatment of fabry disease; AMT-161 that is in preclinical trial to treat amyotrophic lateral sclerosis caused by mutations; AMT-240, which is in preclinical trial to for the treatment of autosomal dominant Alzheimer's disease; and AMT-210 that is in preclinical trial to treat Parkinson's disease. The company was founded in 1998 and is headquartered in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.