Sera Prognostics (NASDAQ:SERA) and Biodesix (NASDAQ:BDSX) Critical Survey

Sera Prognostics (NASDAQ:SERA) and Biodesix (NASDAQ:BDSX) are both small-cap medical companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their valuation, risk, analyst recommendations, profitability, institutional ownership, dividends and earnings.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings for Sera Prognostics and Biodesix, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Sera Prognostics	0	0	1	0	3.00
Biodesix	0	0	5	0	3.00

Biodesix has a consensus target price of $3.06, suggesting a potential upside of 197.09%. Given Biodesix’s higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Biodesix is more favorable than Sera Prognostics.

Volatility and Risk

Sera Prognostics has a beta of 0.86, meaning that its share price is 14% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Biodesix has a beta of 1.1, meaning that its share price is 10% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Sera Prognostics and Biodesix’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Sera Prognostics	N/A	-51.73%	-36.94%
Biodesix	-66.84%	-275.79%	-43.05%

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Sera Prognostics and Biodesix”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Sera Prognostics	$310,000.00	713.53	-$36.24 million	($0.99)	-6.62
Biodesix	$49.09 million	3.05	-$52.15 million	($0.39)	-2.64

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

Institutional and Insider Ownership

54.6% of Sera Prognostics shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 21.0% of Biodesix shares are owned by institutional investors. 15.8% of Sera Prognostics shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 69.2% of Biodesix shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Summary

Biodesix beats Sera Prognostics on 7 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Sera Prognostics

Sera Prognostics, Inc., a women's health diagnostic company, discovers, develops, and commercializes biomarker tests for improving pregnancy outcomes in the United States. The company develops PreTRM test, a blood-based biomarker test to predict the risk of spontaneous preterm birth in singleton pregnancies. It is also developing a portfolio of product candidates for various pregnancy-related conditions, including preterm birth, preeclampsia, molecular time-to-birth, predictive analytics, gestational diabetes mellitus, fetal growth restriction, stillbirth, and postpartum depression. The company was incorporated in 2008 and is headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah.

About Biodesix

Biodesix, Inc. operates as a data-driven diagnostic solutions company in the United States. The company offers blood-based lung tests, including Nodify XL2 and Nodify CDT tests, together marketed as part of Nodify Lung Nodule Risk Assessment testing strategy, to assess the risk of lung cancer and help in identifying the appropriate treatment pathway and help physicians in reclassifying risk of malignancy in patients with suspicious lung nodules. It also provides GeneStrat ddPCR and NGS, and VeriStrat tests, which are used in the diagnosis of lung cancer to measure the presence of mutations in the tumor and the state of the patient's immune system to establish the patient's prognosis and help guide treatment decisions. In addition, the company, through its partnership with Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc., provides Bio-Rad SARS-CoV-2 ddPCR, a COVID-19 Test under Biodesix WorkSafe testing program; and Platelia SARS-CoV-2 Total Ab test, an antibody test for detecting a B-cell immune response to SARS-CoV-2 that indicate recent or prior infection. Further, it offers diagnostic and clinical research, as well as clinical trial testing services to biopharmaceutical companies; and discovers, develops, and commercializes companion diagnostics. The company was formerly known as Elston Technologies, Inc. and as changed to Biodesix, Inc. in 2006. Biodesix, Inc. was incorporated in 2005 and is headquartered in Louisville, Colorado.