Head-To-Head Contrast: Nektar Therapeutics (NASDAQ:NKTR) & Cronos Group (NASDAQ:CRON)

Nektar Therapeutics (NASDAQ:NKTR) and Cronos Group (NASDAQ:CRON) are both medical companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, earnings, dividends, risk, valuation and profitability.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent recommendations and price targets for Nektar Therapeutics and Cronos Group, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Nektar Therapeutics	1	1	9	0	2.73
Cronos Group	1	2	2	0	2.20

Nektar Therapeutics currently has a consensus price target of $149.63, suggesting a potential upside of 141.21%. Cronos Group has a consensus price target of $2.30, suggesting a potential downside of 15.75%. Given Nektar Therapeutics’ stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities research analysts plainly believe Nektar Therapeutics is more favorable than Cronos Group.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

75.9% of Nektar Therapeutics shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 8.7% of Cronos Group shares are owned by institutional investors. 2.5% of Nektar Therapeutics shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 7.8% of Cronos Group shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Volatility & Risk

Nektar Therapeutics has a beta of 1.13, indicating that its share price is 13% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Cronos Group has a beta of 0.89, indicating that its share price is 11% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Nektar Therapeutics and Cronos Group’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Nektar Therapeutics	-284.18%	-85.40%	-39.99%
Cronos Group	-1.14%	-1.26%	-1.20%

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Nektar Therapeutics and Cronos Group”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Nektar Therapeutics	$55.23 million	37.95	-$164.08 million	($8.42)	-7.37
Cronos Group	$146.59 million	6.95	-$9.45 million	$0.01	273.00

Cronos Group has higher revenue and earnings than Nektar Therapeutics. Nektar Therapeutics is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Cronos Group, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Summary

Cronos Group beats Nektar Therapeutics on 8 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Nektar Therapeutics

Nektar Therapeutics, a biopharmaceutical company, focuses on discovering and developing medicines in the field of immunotherapy in the United States and internationally. The company is developing rezpegaldesleukin, a cytokine Treg stimulant that is in phase 2 clinical trial for the treatment of systemic lupus erythematosus and ulcerative colitis, as well as phase 2b clinical trial to treat atopic dermatitis and psoriasis; and NKTR-255, an IL-15 receptor agonist, which is in phase 1 clinical trial to boost the immune system's natural ability to fight cancer. It has collaboration agreements with Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Ltd.; AstraZeneca AB; UCB Pharma S.A.; F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd; Bausch Health Companies Inc.; Pfizer Inc.; Amgen Inc.; UCB Pharma (Biogen); Bristol-Myers Squibb Company; Merck KGaA; and SFJ Pharmaceuticals, Inc. The company was incorporated in 1990 and is headquartered in San Francisco, California.

About Cronos Group

Cronos Group Inc. operates as a cannabinoid company that engages in the cultivation, production and marketing of cannabis products in Canada, Israel, and Germany. It offers dried flower, pre-rolls, oils, vaporizers, edibles, and cannabis tinctures under the Spinach, Lord Jones, and PEACE NATURALS brands. Cronos Group Inc. was founded in 2012 and is based in Toronto, Canada.