Reviewing Black Diamond Therapeutics (NASDAQ:BDTX) and Cellectis (NASDAQ:CLLS)

Cellectis (NASDAQ:CLLS) and Black Diamond Therapeutics (NASDAQ:BDTX) are both small-cap healthcare companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, risk, valuation, dividends, earnings, profitability and institutional ownership.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

63.9% of Cellectis shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 95.5% of Black Diamond Therapeutics shares are owned by institutional investors. 16.4% of Cellectis shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 9.3% of Black Diamond Therapeutics shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Cellectis and Black Diamond Therapeutics”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Cellectis	$79.59 million	1.31	-$67.59 million	($0.65)	-1.60
Black Diamond Therapeutics	$70.00 million	1.41	$22.37 million	($0.75)	-2.29

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

Volatility and Risk

Cellectis has a beta of 3, indicating that its share price is 200% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Black Diamond Therapeutics has a beta of 3.32, indicating that its share price is 232% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and target prices for Cellectis and Black Diamond Therapeutics, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Cellectis	2	2	2	1	2.29
Black Diamond Therapeutics	1	2	7	0	2.60

Cellectis presently has a consensus price target of $5.46, suggesting a potential upside of 425.00%. Black Diamond Therapeutics has a consensus price target of $11.00, suggesting a potential upside of 539.53%. Given Black Diamond Therapeutics’ stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Black Diamond Therapeutics is more favorable than Cellectis.

Profitability

This table compares Cellectis and Black Diamond Therapeutics’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Cellectis	-102.34%	-94.19%	-21.34%
Black Diamond Therapeutics	N/A	-32.10%	-25.21%

Summary

Black Diamond Therapeutics beats Cellectis on 9 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Cellectis

Cellectis S.A., a clinical stage biotechnological company, develops immuno-oncology products based on gene-edited T-cells that express chimeric antigen receptors to target and eradicate cancer cells. The company is developing UCART19, an allogeneic T-cell product candidate for the treatment of CD19-expressing hematologic malignancies, such as acute lymphoblastic leukemia; ALLO-501 and ALLO-501A to treat relapsed or refractory for non-hodgkin lymphoma (NHL); and ALLO-715 for the treatment of multiple myeloma. It also develops UCART22 to treat B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia; UCARTCS1 and ALLO-605 for the treatment of multiple myeloma; ALLO-316 for renal cell carcinoma; UCART123 for the treatment of acute myeloid leukemia; and UCART 20×22 for relapsed or refractory B-Cell NHL. The company has strategic alliances with Allogene Therapeutics, Inc. and Les Laboratoires Servier; research collaboration and exclusive license agreement with Iovance Biotherapeutics; and collaboration and license agreement with Cytovia, as well as a collaboration agreement with AstraZeneca to develop novel cell and gene therapy candidate products. Cellectis S.A. was founded in 1999 and is headquartered in Paris, France.

About Black Diamond Therapeutics

Black Diamond Therapeutics, Inc., a clinical-stage oncology medicine company, focuses on the discovery and development of MasterKey therapies for patients with genetically defined tumors. The company's lead product candidate is BDTX-1535, a brain-penetrant epidermal growth factor receptor MasterKey inhibitor, which is in phase 2 clinical trial for the treatment of epidermal growth factor receptor mutant non-small cell lung cancer, as well as phase 1 clinical trial to treat glioblastoma. It is also developing BDTX-4933, a brain-penetrant RAF MasterKey inhibitor targeting KRAS, NRAS, and BRAF alterations in solid tumors that is in phase 1 clinical trial. In addition, the company is developing BDTX-4876, a MasterKey inhibitor of oncogenic FGFR2/3 mutations with selectivity versus FGFR1/4, which is in preclinical stage. The company was formerly known as ASET Therapeutics, Inc. and changed its name to Black Diamond Therapeutics, Inc. in January 2018. Black Diamond Therapeutics, Inc. was incorporated in 2014 and is headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts.