Critical Comparison: Cidara Therapeutics (NASDAQ:CDTX) vs. Scinai Immunotherapeutics (NASDAQ:SCNI)

Scinai Immunotherapeutics (NASDAQ:SCNI) and Cidara Therapeutics (NASDAQ:CDTX) are both small-cap medical companies, but which is the superior stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, profitability, dividends, valuation, earnings, risk and analyst recommendations.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current recommendations for Scinai Immunotherapeutics and Cidara Therapeutics, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Scinai Immunotherapeutics	0	0	0	0	0.00
Cidara Therapeutics	0	0	4	2	3.33

Cidara Therapeutics has a consensus price target of $32.20, suggesting a potential upside of 39.70%. Given Cidara Therapeutics’ stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Cidara Therapeutics is more favorable than Scinai Immunotherapeutics.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Scinai Immunotherapeutics and Cidara Therapeutics”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Scinai Immunotherapeutics	$452,000.00	6.32	-$6.50 million	($239.17)	-0.01
Cidara Therapeutics	$44.65 million	3.64	-$22.93 million	($25.52)	-0.90

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

Profitability

This table compares Scinai Immunotherapeutics and Cidara Therapeutics’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Scinai Immunotherapeutics	N/A	N/A	-30.48%
Cidara Therapeutics	-289.05%	-69.64%	-33.73%

Risk & Volatility

Scinai Immunotherapeutics has a beta of 2.37, suggesting that its share price is 137% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Cidara Therapeutics has a beta of 0.94, suggesting that its share price is 6% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

58.4% of Scinai Immunotherapeutics shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 35.8% of Cidara Therapeutics shares are owned by institutional investors. 60.9% of Scinai Immunotherapeutics shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 7.6% of Cidara Therapeutics shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Summary

Scinai Immunotherapeutics beats Cidara Therapeutics on 9 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Scinai Immunotherapeutics

Scinai Immunotherapeutics Ltd., a development stage biopharmaceutical company, focuses on developing, manufacturing, and commercializing products for the prevention and treatment of infectious and autoimmune diseases in Israel. It has licensing and collaboration agreement with Max Planck Society and University Medical Center Göttingen for the development and commercialization of COVID-19 nanosized antibody (NanoAb); and development and commercialization of NanoAbs for various other disease indications. The company was formerly known as BiondVax Pharmaceuticals Ltd. and changed its name to Scinai Immunotherapeutics Ltd. in September 2023. Scinai Immunotherapeutics Ltd. was incorporated in 2003 and is headquartered in Jerusalem, Israel.

About Cidara Therapeutics

Cidara Therapeutics, Inc., a biotechnology company, focuses on developing targeted therapies for patients facing cancers and other serious diseases. The company's product includes rezafungin acetate, a novel molecule in the echinocandin class of antifungals for the treatment and prevention of invasive fungal infections, including candidemia and invasive candidiasis, which are fungal infections associated with high mortality rates. It also develops its Cloudbreak platform that enables development of novel drug-Fc conjugates, that includes CD388, a potent antiviral designed to deliver universal prevention and treatment of seasonal and pandemic influenza, which is in Phase 1 and Phase 2a clinical trials. The company was formerly known as K2 Therapeutics, Inc. and changed its name to Cidara Therapeutics, Inc. in July 2014. The company was incorporated in 2012 and is based in San Diego, California.