HilleVax (NASDAQ:HLVX) and NKGen Biotech (NYSE:NKGN) Head to Head Survey

NKGen Biotech (NYSE:NKGN) and HilleVax (NASDAQ:HLVX) are both small-cap medical companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their earnings, risk, dividends, institutional ownership, profitability, valuation and analyst recommendations.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent ratings and price targets for NKGen Biotech and HilleVax, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
NKGen Biotech	0	0	0	0	0.00
HilleVax	0	6	0	0	2.00

HilleVax has a consensus price target of $3.00, indicating a potential upside of 52.67%. Given HilleVax’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe HilleVax is more favorable than NKGen Biotech.

Profitability

This table compares NKGen Biotech and HilleVax’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
NKGen Biotech	N/A	N/A	-479.36%
HilleVax	N/A	-67.27%	-51.99%

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares NKGen Biotech and HilleVax”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
NKGen Biotech	$80,000.00	176.80	-$82.94 million	($5.08)	-0.08
HilleVax	N/A	N/A	-$123.57 million	($3.10)	-0.63

NKGen Biotech has higher revenue and earnings than HilleVax. HilleVax is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than NKGen Biotech, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

76.2% of NKGen Biotech shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 86.4% of HilleVax shares are held by institutional investors. 74.7% of NKGen Biotech shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 71.1% of HilleVax shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Risk and Volatility

NKGen Biotech has a beta of 0.53, suggesting that its share price is 47% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, HilleVax has a beta of 0.78, suggesting that its share price is 22% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

HilleVax beats NKGen Biotech on 6 of the 11 factors compared between the two stocks.

About NKGen Biotech

NKGen Biotech, Inc. operates as a clinical-stage biotechnology company that focuses on the development and commercialization of autologous, allogeneic, and CAR-NK natural killer cell therapies. It develops SNK01, an autologous NK cell therapy; and SNK02, an allogeneic NK cell therapy, which are in Phase 1 clinical trials. The company was founded in 2017 and is based in Santa Ana, California.

About HilleVax

HilleVax, Inc., a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, focuses on developing and commercializing novel vaccines in the United States. It develops HIL-214, a virus-like particle-based vaccine candidate for the prevention of moderate-to-severe acute gastroenteritis caused by norovirus infection. The company was formerly known as MokshaCo, Inc. and changed its name to HilleVax, Inc. in February 2021. HilleVax, Inc. was founded in 2019 and is headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts.