Financial Contrast: Cardiol Therapeutics (NASDAQ:CRDL) and Prelude Therapeutics (NASDAQ:PRLD)

Cardiol Therapeutics (NASDAQ:CRDL) and Prelude Therapeutics (NASDAQ:PRLD) are both small-cap medical companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their risk, institutional ownership, profitability, earnings, valuation, analyst recommendations and dividends.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and recommmendations for Cardiol Therapeutics and Prelude Therapeutics, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Cardiol Therapeutics	0	0	2	2	3.50
Prelude Therapeutics	0	0	2	0	3.00

Cardiol Therapeutics presently has a consensus target price of $8.00, indicating a potential upside of 647.66%. Prelude Therapeutics has a consensus target price of $4.00, indicating a potential upside of 164.90%. Given Cardiol Therapeutics’ stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities analysts plainly believe Cardiol Therapeutics is more favorable than Prelude Therapeutics.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

12.5% of Cardiol Therapeutics shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 79.7% of Prelude Therapeutics shares are owned by institutional investors. 5.3% of Cardiol Therapeutics shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 63.9% of Prelude Therapeutics shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Cardiol Therapeutics and Prelude Therapeutics”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Cardiol Therapeutics	N/A	N/A	-$26.77 million	($0.34)	-3.15
Prelude Therapeutics	$7.00 million	12.21	-$127.17 million	($1.64)	-0.92

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

Profitability

This table compares Cardiol Therapeutics and Prelude Therapeutics’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Cardiol Therapeutics	N/A	-232.26%	-158.19%
Prelude Therapeutics	N/A	-106.50%	-79.07%

Volatility & Risk

Cardiol Therapeutics has a beta of 1.02, suggesting that its share price is 2% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Prelude Therapeutics has a beta of 1.28, suggesting that its share price is 28% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Prelude Therapeutics beats Cardiol Therapeutics on 7 of the 12 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Cardiol Therapeutics

Cardiol Therapeutics Inc., a clinical-stage life sciences company, focuses on the research and development of anti-fibrotic and anti-inflammatory therapies for the treatment of heart diseases. Its lead product CardiolRx, which is in Phase II multi-national, randomized, double-blind, and placebo-controlled study to evaluate the efficacy and safety of CardiolRx in acute myocarditis, as well as for the treatment of recurrent pericarditis. The company is also developing CRD-38 injection for subcutaneous administration that is in preclinical development for the treatment of heart failure. It has a license agreement with Meros. The company was incorporated in 2017 and is headquartered in Oakville, Canada.

About Prelude Therapeutics

Prelude Therapeutics Incorporated, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, focuses on the discovery and development of novel precision cancer medicines to underserved patients. It is developing PRT1419, a myeloid cell leukemia-1 inhibitor, which is in Phase 1 clinical trial for the treatment of selected relapsed/refractory myeloid or B-cell malignancies; PRT2527, a cyclin-dependent kinase, which is in Phase 1 clinical trial for the treatment of advanced solid tumors; PRT3645, a cyclin-dependent kinase 4/6 inhibitor, which is in Phase 1 clinical trial for the treatment of advanced and metastatic solid tumors; and PRT3879, a SMARCA2 selective protein degrader, which is in Phase 2/3 clinical trial for the treatment of advanced and metastatic solid tumors with loss of SMARCA4 due to truncating mutation and/or deletion. The company's CDK9 program is a regulator of cancer-promoting transcriptional programs, including MCL1, MYC and MYB. Prelude Therapeutics Incorporated was incorporated in 2016 and is based in Wilmington, Delaware.