Cerus (CERS) Competitors

STAAR Surgical (NASDAQ:STAA) and Cerus (NASDAQ:CERS) are both small-cap medical companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their profitability, institutional ownership, media sentiment, community ranking, valuation, earnings, dividends, analyst recommendations and risk.

Do insiders and institutionals have more ownership in STAA or CERS?

96.7% of STAAR Surgical shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 78.4% of Cerus shares are held by institutional investors. 1.0% of STAAR Surgical shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 3.4% of Cerus shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Do analysts rate STAA or CERS?

STAAR Surgical presently has a consensus target price of $42.83, indicating a potential upside of 77.22%. Cerus has a consensus target price of $3.63, indicating a potential upside of 129.43%. Given Cerus' stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Cerus is more favorable than STAAR Surgical.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
STAAR Surgical	1 Sell rating(s)	4 Hold rating(s)	4 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.33
Cerus	0 Sell rating(s)	1 Hold rating(s)	3 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.75

Is STAA or CERS more profitable?

STAAR Surgical has a net margin of 6.38% compared to Cerus' net margin of -11.19%. STAAR Surgical's return on equity of 6.77% beat Cerus' return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
STAAR Surgical	6.38%	6.77%	5.39%
Cerus	-11.19%	-37.90%	-10.35%

Does the MarketBeat Community favor STAA or CERS?

Cerus received 281 more outperform votes than STAAR Surgical when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 72.30% of users gave Cerus an outperform vote while only 55.38% of users gave STAAR Surgical an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
STAAR Surgical	Outperform Votes 288 55.38%	Underperform Votes 232 44.62%
Cerus	Outperform Votes 569 72.30%	Underperform Votes 218 27.70%

Which has stronger earnings & valuation, STAA or CERS?

STAAR Surgical has higher revenue and earnings than Cerus. Cerus is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than STAAR Surgical, 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
STAAR Surgical	$341.22M	3.49	$21.35M	$0.44	54.93
Cerus	$176.23M	1.67	-$37.49M	-$0.11	-14.36

Does the media prefer STAA or CERS?

In the previous week, STAAR Surgical had 3 more articles in the media than Cerus. MarketBeat recorded 7 mentions for STAAR Surgical and 4 mentions for Cerus. STAAR Surgical's average media sentiment score of 1.30 beat Cerus' score of 0.60 indicating that STAAR Surgical is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
STAAR Surgical	3 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	1 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Cerus	2 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	1 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Which has more risk and volatility, STAA or CERS?

STAAR Surgical has a beta of 0.59, meaning that its share price is 41% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Cerus has a beta of 1.24, meaning that its share price is 24% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

STAAR Surgical beats Cerus on 12 of the 18 factors compared between the two stocks.