Merck KGaA (OTCMKTS:MKKGY – Get Free Report) and Maravai LifeSciences (NASDAQ:MRVI – Get Free Report) are both medical companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, valuation, institutional ownership, dividends, profitability, earnings and risk.
Insider & Institutional Ownership
0.1% of Merck KGaA shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 50.3% of Maravai LifeSciences shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.6% of Maravai LifeSciences shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.
Analyst Ratings
This is a breakdown of current recommendations and price targets for Merck KGaA and Maravai LifeSciences, as provided by MarketBeat.
| Sell Ratings | Hold Ratings | Buy Ratings | Strong Buy Ratings | Rating Score | |
| Merck KGaA | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2.50 |
| Maravai LifeSciences | 0 | 5 | 6 | 0 | 2.55 |
Risk & Volatility
Merck KGaA has a beta of 0.96, suggesting that its share price is 4% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Maravai LifeSciences has a beta of 0.02, suggesting that its share price is 98% less volatile than the S&P 500.
Valuation and Earnings
This table compares Merck KGaA and Maravai LifeSciences”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.
| Gross Revenue | Price/Sales Ratio | Net Income | Earnings Per Share | Price/Earnings Ratio | |
| Merck KGaA | $22.72 billion | 0.85 | $3.06 billion | $1.62 | 18.48 |
| Maravai LifeSciences | $288.95 million | 4.62 | -$119.03 million | ($1.64) | -3.23 |
Merck KGaA has higher revenue and earnings than Maravai LifeSciences. Maravai LifeSciences is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Merck KGaA, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Profitability
This table compares Merck KGaA and Maravai LifeSciences’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.
| Net Margins | Return on Equity | Return on Assets | |
| Merck KGaA | 12.89% | 10.51% | 5.93% |
| Maravai LifeSciences | -81.13% | -6.61% | -3.45% |
Summary
Merck KGaA beats Maravai LifeSciences on 8 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.
About Merck KGaA
Merck KGaA operates as a science and technology company in Germany. It operates through Life Science, Healthcare, and Electronics segments. The company’s Life Science segment offers tools, chemicals, and equipment for academic labs, biotech, and pharmaceutical manufacturers, as well as industrial sector. This segment provides drug manufacturers with process development expertise and technologies, such as continuous bioprocessing; testing kits and services; reagents and services; testing solutions that analyze air, water, and soil; and testing and tools, as well as products that help test nutritional value and identify quality inconsistencies. Its Healthcare segment discovers, develops, manufacturers, and markets prescription drugs and biopharmaceuticals for the treatment of oncology, neurology and immunology, fertility, endocrinology, as well as cardiovascular, diabetes, thyroid disorders, and multiple sclerosis; general medicines; and injection device and disease monitoring software. The Electronics segment supplies materials for the semiconductor and display industries and surface design, such as delivery systems and services, as well as surface solutions, including cosmetics, effect pigments, and functional solutions. In addition, it has in-licensing agreement with Debiopharm International SA for developing and commercializing drug candidates for the treatment of head and neck cancer; Jiangsu Hengrui Pharmaceuticals Co. Ltd. for developing, manufacturing, and commercializing drug candidates for the treatment of metastatic colorectal cancer; and Abbisko Therapeutics Co. Ltd. for developing and commercializing of drug candidates for the treatment of tenosynovial giant cell tumor, as well as license and collaboration agreement with Merck KGaA to discover two targeted protein degraders against critical oncogenic proteins. The company was founded in 1668 and is headquartered in Darmstadt, Germany. Merck KGaA operates as a subsidiary of E. Merck KGaA.
About Maravai LifeSciences
Maravai LifeSciences Holdings, Inc., a life sciences company, provides products to enable the development of drug therapies, diagnostics, novel vaccines, and support research on human diseases worldwide. The company’s products address the key phases of biopharmaceutical development and include nucleic acids for diagnostic and therapeutic applications, antibody-based products to detect impurities during the production of biopharmaceutical products, and products to detect the expression of proteins in tissues of various species. It operates in two segments, Nucleic Acid Production and Biologics Safety Testing. The Nucleic Acid Production segment manufactures and sells products for use in the fields of gene therapy, vaccines, nucleoside chemistry, oligonucleotide therapy, and molecular diagnostics, including reagents used in the chemical synthesis, modification, labelling, and purification of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) and ribonucleic acid (RNA). This segment also offers messenger RNA, oligonucleotides, and oligonucleotide building blocks, as well as custom enzyme development and manufacturing and CleanCap capping technology. The Biologics Safety Testing segment sells analytical products for use in biologic manufacturing process development, including custom product-specific development antibody, and assay development services. This segment also provides HCP ELISA kits, other bioprocess impurity and contaminant ELISA kits, ancillary reagents, viral clearance prediction kits, and custom services. The company serves biopharmaceutical companies, and other biopharmaceutical and life sciences research companies; and academic research institutions and in vitro diagnostics companies. The company was incorporated in 2020 and is headquartered in San Diego, California.
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