Financial Analysis: Equillium (NASDAQ:EQ) versus Septerna (NASDAQ:SEPN)

Septerna (NASDAQ:SEPN) and Equillium (NASDAQ:EQ) are both small-cap healthcare companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, profitability, institutional ownership, risk, dividends, valuation and earnings.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Septerna and Equillium”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Septerna	$45.95 million	37.93	-$48.88 million	($0.54)	-69.14
Equillium	$41.10 million	3.74	-$22.40 million	($0.20)	-12.10

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

Insider and Institutional Ownership

27.1% of Equillium shares are held by institutional investors. 5.8% of Septerna shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 17.8% of Equillium shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

This table compares Septerna and Equillium’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Septerna	-24.51%	-9.57%	-6.28%
Equillium	N/A	-41.15%	-38.29%

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent ratings and recommmendations for Septerna and Equillium, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Septerna	1	1	8	1	2.82
Equillium	1	1	7	2	2.91

Septerna currently has a consensus price target of $52.44, indicating a potential upside of 40.47%. Equillium has a consensus price target of $7.57, indicating a potential upside of 212.74%. Given Equillium’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Equillium is more favorable than Septerna.

Risk and Volatility

Septerna has a beta of 2.3, suggesting that its share price is 130% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Equillium has a beta of 1.81, suggesting that its share price is 81% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Equillium beats Septerna on 9 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Septerna

We are a clinical-stage biotechnology company pioneering a new era of G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) oral small molecule drug discovery powered by our proprietary Native Complex Platform™. Our industrial-scale platform aims to unlock the full potential of GPCR therapies and has led to the discovery and development of our deep pipeline of product candidates focused initially on treating patients in three therapeutic areas: endocrinology, immunology and inflammation, and metabolic diseases. GPCRs are the largest and most diverse family of cell membrane receptors and regulate physiological processes in nearly every organ system of the human body. Due to their significant role in human diseases, GPCRs have been the most productive target class in drug discovery history, accounting for approximately one-third of all U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved drugs, representing approximately 500 products with combined global revenue of approximately $125 billion in 2023. Despite the pharmacological and commercial success of GPCR-targeted agents, about 75% of potential GPCR therapeutic targets remain undrugged and, for certain validated GPCRs, novel binding pockets may exist that could offer enhanced therapeutic benefits. Each step in GPCR activation involves subtle conformational changes that have been historically challenging to reproduce outside of a cell. The inability to isolate GPCR proteins in their native functional form outside of a cellular context has prevented scientists from leveraging some of the state-of-the-art technologies that have revolutionized drug discovery in other major target classes over the past decade. This complex challenge has limited GPCR drug discovery, particularly the development of novel oral small molecules, such as agonists (which activate GPCR signaling) for peptide GPCRs and allosteric modulators (which either increase or decrease the degree of GPCR activation by endogenous ligands). Our proprietary Native Complex Platform™ replicates the natural structure, function, and dynamics of GPCRs outside of cells at an industrial scale for, as we believe it, the first time. Our foundational technologies enable us to isolate, purify, and reconstitute full-length, properly folded GPCR proteins within ternary complexes with ligands and transducer proteins in a lipid bilayer that mimics the cell membrane. We then apply state-of-the-art discovery tools and technologies to these defined and tunable protein complexes to structurally design, screen for, and optimize potential product candidates. Leveraging our platform, we conduct GPCR oral small molecule drug discovery using an industrialized and iterative structure-based drug design approach for a diverse collection of GPCR targets. Our Native Complex PlatformTM is designed to enable us to target specific GPCRs, uncover novel binding pockets for validated receptors, and pursue a wide spectrum of pharmacologies, including agonists, antagonists (which inhibit GPCR signaling), and allosteric modulators, to affect GPCR signaling in different ways to achieve desired therapeutic effects. We are advancing a deep portfolio of oral small molecule GPCR-targeted programs with novel mechanistic approaches to treat diseases across multiple therapeutic areas for patients with significant unmet needs. Our wholly-owned pipeline, is focused initially on three therapeutic areas: endocrinology, immunology and inflammation, and metabolic diseases. We intend to evaluate opportunities in other major therapeutic areas, such as neurology, women’s health, cardiovascular, and respiratory disease. — Leveraging our team, scientific and technical advisors, and our proprietary Native Complex Platform™, we aim to be a leader in the development of oral GPCR-targeted medicines for patients with significant unmet needs. We were incorporated under the laws of the State of Delaware in December 2019 under the name GPCR NewCo, Inc. and changed our name to Septerna, Inc. in June 2021. Our principal executive offices are located at 250 East Grand Avenue, South San Francisco, California.

About Equillium

Equillium, Inc., a clinical-stage biotechnology company, develops and sells products to treat severe autoimmune and inflammatory, or immuno-inflammatory disorders with unmet medical need. The company's lead product candidate is itolizumab (EQ001), a first-in-class monoclonal antibody that targets the immune checkpoint receptor CD6, which is in Phase III clinical trials for the treatment of acute graft-versus-host disease; completed Phase I clinical trial for the treatment of ulcerative colitis; and Phase I clinical trial for the treatment of lupus nephritis. It also develops EQ101 completed phase 1/2 for treatment of cutaneous T cell lymphoma and alopecia areata; and EQ302 to treat gastrointestinal indications. In addition, it serves dermatology, gastroenterology, rheumatology, hematology, transplant science, oncology, and pulmonology area. The company was formerly known as Attenuate Biopharmaceuticals, Inc. and changed its name to Equillium, Inc. in May 2017. Equillium, Inc. was incorporated in 2017 and is headquartered in La Jolla, California.