Head-To-Head Contrast: Chimerix (NASDAQ:CMRX) versus GH Research (NASDAQ:GHRS)

GH Research (NASDAQ:GHRS) and Chimerix (NASDAQ:CMRX) are both small-cap medical companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, valuation, earnings, risk, dividends, institutional ownership and profitability.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

56.9% of GH Research shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 45.4% of Chimerix shares are owned by institutional investors. 41.6% of GH Research shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 13.1% of Chimerix shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Risk & Volatility

GH Research has a beta of 0.86, suggesting that its share price is 14% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Chimerix has a beta of 1.2, suggesting that its share price is 20% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent ratings for GH Research and Chimerix, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
GH Research	0	0	3	0	3.00
Chimerix	0	0	2	0	3.00

GH Research presently has a consensus price target of $36.67, suggesting a potential upside of 205.81%. Chimerix has a consensus price target of $8.50, suggesting a potential upside of 846.02%. Given Chimerix’s higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Chimerix is more favorable than GH Research.

Profitability

This table compares GH Research and Chimerix’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
GH Research	N/A	-14.56%	-14.10%
Chimerix	-25,337.96%	-41.32%	-37.83%

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares GH Research and Chimerix’s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
GH Research	N/A	N/A	-$35.59 million	($0.62)	-19.34
Chimerix	$41,000.00	1,964.21	-$82.10 million	($0.93)	-0.97

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

Summary

GH Research beats Chimerix on 8 of the 12 factors compared between the two stocks.

About GH Research

GH Research PLC, together with its subsidiary GH Research Ireland Limited, engages in developing various therapies to treat psychiatric and neurological disorders. It is involved in the development of 5-Methoxy-N,N-Dimethyltryptamine (5-MeO-DMT) therapies for the treatment of patients with treatment-resistant depression (TRD). The company's lead program is GH001, an inhalable mebufotenin product candidate, currently under Phase 2b clinical trial for the treatment of patients with TRD, as well as Phase 2a clinical trials for the treatment of Bipolar II disorder and postpartum depression. It is also involved in the development of GH002, an intravenous mebufotenin product candidate for IV administration, currently under Phase 1 clinical trials for the treatment of psychiatric or neurological disorder; and GH003, an intranasal mebufotenin product candidate for nasal administration, which is currently in preclinical development with a focus on psychiatric and neurological disorders. The company was founded in 2018 and is based in Dublin, Ireland.

About Chimerix

Chimerix, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company, develops medicines to improve and extend the lives of patients facing deadly diseases. Its pipeline products include ONC201 a program that is in Phase 3 clinical trial for treating patients with H3 K27M-mutant diffuse glioma, as well as in Phase 2 clinical trial for the treatment of rare neuroendocrine tumors; and ONC206, an imipridone, Dopamine Receptor D2 (DRD2) antagonist, and caseinolytic protease P (ClpP) agonist, which is in Phase 1 clinical trial for adult and pediatric patients with primary central nervous system tumors. The company also develops ONC212, an imipridone agonist of the orphan G protein-coupled receptors (GPCR) tumor suppressor GPR132, as well as ClpP for oncology indications; and CMX521, a nucleoside analog antiviral drug candidate for the treatment of SARS-CoV-2. It has license agreement with SymBio Pharmaceuticals to develop and commercialize TEMBEXA for human diseases other than orthopoxviruses, including smallpox. Chimerix, Inc. was incorporated in 2000 and is headquartered in Durham, North Carolina.