Head to Head Comparison: ProKidney (NASDAQ:PROK) versus Vigil Neuroscience (NASDAQ:VIGL)

ProKidney (NASDAQ:PROK) and Vigil Neuroscience (NASDAQ:VIGL) are both small-cap medical companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their dividends, institutional ownership, valuation, analyst recommendations, risk, earnings and profitability.

Risk & Volatility

ProKidney has a beta of 1.27, meaning that its share price is 27% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Vigil Neuroscience has a beta of 1.65, meaning that its share price is 65% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares ProKidney and Vigil Neuroscience”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
ProKidney	N/A	N/A	-$35.47 million	($0.55)	-3.26
Vigil Neuroscience	N/A	N/A	-$82.64 million	($2.06)	-0.97

ProKidney is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Vigil Neuroscience, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

51.6% of ProKidney shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 83.6% of Vigil Neuroscience shares are owned by institutional investors. 41.5% of ProKidney shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 33.0% of Vigil Neuroscience shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent ratings for ProKidney and Vigil Neuroscience, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
ProKidney	0	3	2	0	2.40
Vigil Neuroscience	1	0	5	0	2.67

ProKidney presently has a consensus target price of $4.50, suggesting a potential upside of 150.70%. Vigil Neuroscience has a consensus target price of $16.60, suggesting a potential upside of 734.17%. Given Vigil Neuroscience’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Vigil Neuroscience is more favorable than ProKidney.

Profitability

This table compares ProKidney and Vigil Neuroscience’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
ProKidney	N/A	N/A	-10.24%
Vigil Neuroscience	N/A	-83.89%	-65.34%

Summary

Vigil Neuroscience beats ProKidney on 6 of the 11 factors compared between the two stocks.

About ProKidney

ProKidney Corp., a clinical-stage biotechnology company, provides transformative proprietary cell therapy platform for treating various chronic kidney diseases in the United States. The company's lead product is Renal Autologous Cell Therapy (REACT), an autologous homologous cell admixture, which has completed Phase I clinical trial for REACT in patients with congenital anomalies of the Kidney and Urinary Tract (CAKUT), as well as in Phase III and Phase II clinical trials for the treatment of moderate to severe diabetic kidney disease. ProKidney Corp. founded in 2015 and is headquartered in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

About Vigil Neuroscience

Vigil Neuroscience, Inc., a clinical-stage biotechnology company, focuses on developing treatments for rare and common neurodegenerative diseases by restoring the vigilance of microglia, the sentinel immune cells of the brain. Its lead candidate is VGL101(Iluzanebart), a human monoclonal antibody agonist targeting human triggering receptor expressed on myeloid cells 2 and is in a Phase 2 trial in patients with adult-onset leukoencephalopathy with axonal spheroids and pigmented glia (ALSP), a rare and fatal neurodegenerative disease. The company is also developing VG-3927, an orally-available small molecule TREM2 agonist to treat common neurodegenerative diseases associated with microglial dysfunction, with an initial focus on Alzheimer’s disease in genetically defined subpopulations, which is being evaluated in a Phase 1 clinical trial. It has license agreement with Amgen Inc. to commercially develop, manufacture, use, distribute, and sell therapeutic products containing compounds that bind to TREM2. The company was incorporated in 2020 and is headquartered in Watertown, Massachusetts.