Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA) versus Scilex (NASDAQ:SCLX) Financial Comparison

Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA) and Scilex (NASDAQ:SCLX) are both medical companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, dividends, institutional ownership, earnings, profitability, valuation and risk.

Risk and Volatility

Moderna has a beta of 1.66, suggesting that its share price is 66% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Scilex has a beta of 1.22, suggesting that its share price is 22% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

75.3% of Moderna shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 69.7% of Scilex shares are owned by institutional investors. 15.2% of Moderna shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 8.7% of Scilex shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Profitability

This table compares Moderna and Scilex’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Moderna	-115.82%	-20.10%	-15.00%
Scilex	-229.47%	N/A	-106.29%

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current ratings and price targets for Moderna and Scilex, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Moderna	2	9	7	0	2.28
Scilex	0	0	3	0	3.00

Moderna presently has a consensus target price of $134.02, indicating a potential upside of 15.58%. Scilex has a consensus target price of $8.00, indicating a potential upside of 344.44%. Given Scilex’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Scilex is more favorable than Moderna.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Moderna and Scilex’s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Moderna	$6.85 billion	6.49	-$4.71 billion	($15.67)	-7.40
Scilex	$46.74 million	6.98	-$114.33 million	($1.31)	-1.37

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

About Moderna

Moderna, Inc., a biotechnology company, discovers, develops, and commercializes messenger RNA therapeutics and vaccines for the treatment of infectious diseases, immuno-oncology, rare diseases, autoimmune, and cardiovascular diseases in the United States, Europe, and internationally. Its respiratory vaccines include COVID-19, influenza, and respiratory syncytial virus, spikevax, and hMPV/PIV3 vaccines; latent vaccines comprise cytomegalovirus, epstein-barr virus, herpes simplex virus, varicella zoster virus, and human immunodeficiency virus vaccines; public health vaccines consists of Zika, Nipah, Mpox vaccines; and infectious diseases vaccines, such as lyme and norovirus vaccines. The company also offers systemic secreted and cell surface therapeutics; cancer vaccines, such as personalized cancer, KRAS, and checkpoint vaccines; intratumoral immuno-oncology products; rare disease intracellular therapeutics; and inhaled pulmonary therapeutics. It has strategic alliances and collaborations with AstraZeneca; Merck & Co., Inc; Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated; Vertex Pharmaceuticals (Europe) Limited; Chiesi Farmaceutici S.p.A.; Metagenomi, Inc.; Carisma Therapeutics, Inc.; CytomX Therapeutics; Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency; Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority; Institute for Life Changing Medicines; and The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The company was formerly known as Moderna Therapeutics, Inc. and changed its name to Moderna, Inc. in August 2018. Moderna, Inc. was founded in 2010 and is headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

About Scilex

Scilex Holding Company focuses on acquiring, developing, and commercializing non-opioid pain management products for the treatment of acute and chronic pain. Its commercial products include ZTlido (lidocaine topical system) 1.8% (ZTlido), a prescription lidocaine topical product for the relief of neuropathic pain associated with postherpetic neuralgia (PHN), which is a form of post-shingles nerve pain; ELYXYB, a ready-to-use oral solution for the acute treatment of migraine with or without aura in adults; and GLOPERBA, a liquid oral version of the anti-gout medicine colchicine indicated for the prophylaxis of painful gout flares in adults. The company is also developing three product candidates, including SP-102 (10 mg dexamethasone sodium phosphate viscous gel) (SEMDEXA), a novel viscous gel formulation of a used corticosteroid for epidural injections, which has completed a Phase 3 study to treat lumbosacral radicular pain or sciatica; SP-103 (lidocaine topical system) 5.4% (SP-103), a formulation of ZTlido for the treatment of chronic neck pain and low back pain (LBP) that has completed a Phase 2 trial; and SP-104 (4.5 mg low-dose naltrexone hydrochloride delayed-release capsules) (SP-104), a novel low-dose delayed-release naltrexone hydrochloride, which has completed Phase 1 trials for the treatment of fibromyalgia. The company is headquartered in Palo Alto, California.