Compugen (NASDAQ:CGEN – Get Free Report) and Pliant Therapeutics (NASDAQ:PLRX – Get Free Report) are both small-cap healthcare companies, but which is the better business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, analyst recommendations, dividends, institutional ownership, profitability, valuation and earnings.
Risk & Volatility
Compugen has a beta of 2.78, indicating that its share price is 178% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Pliant Therapeutics has a beta of 1.27, indicating that its share price is 27% more volatile than the S&P 500.
Analyst Ratings
This is a breakdown of recent recommendations and price targets for Compugen and Pliant Therapeutics, as reported by MarketBeat.
| Sell Ratings | Hold Ratings | Buy Ratings | Strong Buy Ratings | Rating Score | |
| Compugen | 0 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 3.00 |
| Pliant Therapeutics | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2.00 |
Compugen presently has a consensus price target of $5.00, suggesting a potential upside of 157.07%. Pliant Therapeutics has a consensus price target of $3.00, suggesting a potential upside of 247.22%. Given Pliant Therapeutics’ higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Pliant Therapeutics is more favorable than Compugen.
Insider and Institutional Ownership
12.2% of Compugen shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 97.3% of Pliant Therapeutics shares are held by institutional investors. 9.5% of Compugen shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 8.7% of Pliant Therapeutics shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.
Profitability
This table compares Compugen and Pliant Therapeutics’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.
| Net Margins | Return on Equity | Return on Assets | |
| Compugen | 47.56% | 42.57% | 26.13% |
| Pliant Therapeutics | N/A | -52.17% | -40.46% |
Earnings & Valuation
This table compares Compugen and Pliant Therapeutics”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.
| Gross Revenue | Price/Sales Ratio | Net Income | Earnings Per Share | Price/Earnings Ratio | |
| Compugen | $72.76 million | 2.53 | $35.34 million | $0.38 | 5.12 |
| Pliant Therapeutics | $1.58 million | 33.86 | -$149.34 million | ($1.49) | -0.58 |
Compugen has higher revenue and earnings than Pliant Therapeutics. Pliant Therapeutics is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Compugen, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Summary
Compugen beats Pliant Therapeutics on 12 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.
About Compugen
Compugen Ltd., a clinical-stage therapeutic discovery and development company, researches, develops, and commercializes therapeutic and product candidates in Israel, the United States, and Europe. The company’s immuno-oncology pipeline consists of COM701, an anti-PVRIG antibody that is in Phase I clinical study used for the treatment of solid tumors; COM902, a therapeutic antibody targeting TIGIT, which is in Phase I monotherapy clinical study in patients with advanced malignancies through sequential dose escalations; Bapotulimab, a therapeutic antibody targeting ILDR2 that is in Phase I clinical study in patients with naïve head and neck squamous cell carcinoma; and Rilvegostomig, a novel anti-TIGIT/PD-1 bispecific antibody, which is in Phase II clinical study in patients with advanced or metastatic non-small cell lung cancer. Its therapeutic pipeline also includes early-stage immuno-oncology programs focused to address various mechanisms of immune resistance; and COM503, high affinity antibody, which blocks the interaction between IL-18 binding protein and IL-18. The company has collaboration agreement with Bayer Pharma AG for the research, development, and commercialization of antibody-based therapeutics against the company’s immune checkpoint regulators; Bristol-Myers Squibb to evaluate the safety and tolerability of COM701 in combination with Bristol-Myers Squibb’s PD-1 immune checkpoint inhibitor Opdivo in patients with advanced solid tumors; and Johns Hopkins School of Medicine to evaluate novel T cell and myeloid checkpoint targets. It has license agreement with AstraZeneca for the development of bi-specific and multi-specific immuno-oncology antibody products; and research collaboration with Johns Hopkins University for myeloid. Compugen Ltd. was incorporated in 1993 and is headquartered in Holon, Israel.
About Pliant Therapeutics
Pliant Therapeutics, Inc., a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company, discovers, develops, and commercializes novel therapies for the treatment of fibrosis and related diseases in the United States. The company's lead candidate is bexotegrast, an oral, small-molecule, dual selective inhibitor of avß6 and avß1 integrins, which is in phase 2b trials for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis and in phase 2a trial for primary sclerosing cholangitis. It also develops PLN-1474, an oral, small-molecule selective inhibitor of avß1 for the treatment of liver fibrosis associated with nonalcoholic steatohepatitis; PLN-101095, a dual inhibitor of integrins avß8 and avß1 for the treatment of solid tumors; and PLN-101325 for treatment of muscular dystrophies. Pliant Therapeutics, Inc. was incorporated in 2015 and is based in South San Francisco, California.
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