Head to Head Analysis: Black Diamond Therapeutics (NASDAQ:BDTX) and Molecular Partners (NASDAQ:MOLN)

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

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations for Black Diamond Therapeutics and Molecular Partners, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Black Diamond Therapeutics	1	2	8	0	2.64
Molecular Partners	1	1	2	0	2.25

Black Diamond Therapeutics presently has a consensus price target of $10.25, suggesting a potential upside of 422.96%. Molecular Partners has a consensus price target of $8.38, suggesting a potential upside of 100.12%. Given Black Diamond Therapeutics’ stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities analysts plainly believe Black Diamond Therapeutics is more favorable than Molecular Partners.

Risk and Volatility

Black Diamond Therapeutics has a beta of 3.31, indicating that its stock price is 231% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Molecular Partners has a beta of 1.09, indicating that its stock price is 9% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Black Diamond Therapeutics	N/A	-32.10%	-25.21%
Molecular Partners	N/A	-68.36%	-54.82%

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Black Diamond Therapeutics and Molecular Partners”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Black Diamond Therapeutics	$70.00 million	1.61	$22.37 million	($0.75)	-2.61
Molecular Partners	$5.65 million	29.91	-$74.41 million	($1.71)	-2.45

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

Insider & Institutional Ownership

95.5% of Black Diamond Therapeutics shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 26.6% of Molecular Partners shares are held by institutional investors. 9.3% of Black Diamond Therapeutics shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 5.9% of Molecular Partners shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Summary

Black Diamond Therapeutics beats Molecular Partners on 11 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

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.

About Molecular Partners

Molecular Partners AG, a clinical-stage biotechnology company, develops designed ankyrin repeat proteins therapeutics for the treatment of oncology and virology diseases in Switzerland. The company develops MP0317, a CD40 agonist designed to activate immune cells within the tumor microenvironment by anchoring to fibroblast activation protein that is in Phase I clinical trial; and MP0533, a novel tetra-specific T cell-engaging DARPin for acute myeloid leukemia. It also develops Switch-DARPin platform, a multispecific cKIT x CD16a x CD47 Switch-DARPin program for targeted and conditional immune cell activation; and Radio-DARPin Therapy (RDT) platform, a delivery system for effective and selective delivery of radioactive payloads to solid tumors. It has license and research collaboration agreements with Novartis Pharma AG to develop DARPin-conjugated radioligand therapies; and collaboration agreement with Orano Med SAS to develop novel Radio-DARPin therapeutics. Molecular Partners AG was incorporated in 2004 and is headquartered in Schlieren, Switzerland.