Shattuck Labs (NASDAQ:STTK) and Geron (NASDAQ:GERN) Financial Contrast

Geron (NASDAQ:GERN) and Shattuck Labs (NASDAQ:STTK) are both small-cap healthcare companies, but which is the superior stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their profitability, institutional ownership, risk, valuation, analyst recommendations, dividends and earnings.

Volatility and Risk

Geron has a beta of 0.61, indicating that its share price is 39% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Shattuck Labs has a beta of 1.08, indicating that its share price is 8% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Geron and Shattuck Labs’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Geron	-34.17%	-24.48%	-10.30%
Shattuck Labs	N/A	-60.73%	-55.75%

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations for Geron and Shattuck Labs, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Geron	1	2	2	0	2.20
Shattuck Labs	1	0	10	0	2.82

Geron currently has a consensus price target of $4.00, suggesting a potential upside of 157.57%. Shattuck Labs has a consensus price target of $12.62, suggesting a potential upside of 74.62%. Given Geron’s higher possible upside, equities research analysts clearly believe Geron is more favorable than Shattuck Labs.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Geron and Shattuck Labs”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Geron	$183.88 million	5.43	-$83.50 million	($0.11)	-14.12
Shattuck Labs	$1.00 million	554.40	-$48.81 million	($0.63)	-11.48

Shattuck Labs has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Geron. Geron is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Shattuck Labs, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

73.7% of Geron shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 58.7% of Shattuck Labs shares are owned by institutional investors. 1.7% of Geron shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 8.8% of Shattuck Labs shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Summary

Shattuck Labs beats Geron on 8 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Geron

Geron Corporation, a late-stage clinical biopharmaceutical company, focuses on the development and commercialization of therapeutics for myeloid hematologic malignancies. It develops imetelstat, a telomerase inhibitor that is in Phase 3 clinical trials, which inhibits the uncontrolled proliferation of malignant stem and progenitor cells in myeloid hematologic malignancies for the treatment of low or intermediate-1 risk myelodysplastic syndromes and intermediate-2 or high-risk myelofibrosis. The company was incorporated in 1990 and is headquartered in Foster City, California.

About Shattuck Labs

Shattuck Labs, Inc., a clinical-stage biotechnology company, develops therapeutics for the treatment of cancer and autoimmune disease in the United States. The company's lead product candidate is SL-172154, which is in Phase 1 clinical trial for the treatment of ovarian, fallopian tube, and peritoneal cancers. Shattuck Labs, Inc. was incorporated in 2016 and is headquartered in Austin, Texas.