Reviewing BioAtla (NASDAQ:BCAB) & Exicure (NASDAQ:XCUR)

BioAtla (NASDAQ:BCAB) and Exicure (NASDAQ:XCUR) are both small-cap healthcare companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their valuation, profitability, institutional ownership, earnings, dividends, risk and analyst recommendations.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations and price targets for BioAtla and Exicure, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
BioAtla	1	0	1	0	2.00
Exicure	1	0	0	0	1.00

BioAtla currently has a consensus price target of $200.00, indicating a potential upside of 13,233.33%. Given BioAtla’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe BioAtla is more favorable than Exicure.

Risk & Volatility

BioAtla has a beta of 0.64, suggesting that its stock price is 36% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Exicure has a beta of 3.64, suggesting that its stock price is 264% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

77.2% of BioAtla shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 42.8% of Exicure shares are held by institutional investors. 9.3% of BioAtla shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 52.8% of Exicure shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares BioAtla and Exicure”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
BioAtla	$8.50 million	0.29	-$59.61 million	($25.45)	-0.06
Exicure	$500,000.00	13.76	-$4.95 million	($1.32)	-0.80

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

Profitability

This table compares BioAtla and Exicure’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
BioAtla	N/A	N/A	-289.67%
Exicure	N/A	-237.91%	-61.98%

Summary

BioAtla beats Exicure on 7 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

About BioAtla

BioAtla, Inc., a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, develops specific and selective antibody-based therapeutics for the treatment of solid tumor cancer. The company's lead clinical stage product candidates include mecbotamab vedotin (BA3011), a conditionally active biologic (CAB) antibody-drug conjugate (ADC), which is in Phase II clinical trial for treating undifferentiated pleomorphic sarcoma and non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC); and ozuriftabmab vedotin (BA3021), a CAB ADC that is in Phase II clinical trial for the treatment of melanoma and squamous cell cancer of the head and neck. It is also developing Evalstotug (BA3071), a CAB anti-cytotoxic T-lymphocyte-associated antigen 4 antibody, which is in Phase II clinical trial for treating melanoma, carcinomas, and NSCLC; and BA3182, a bispecific candidate that is in Phase 1 study for the treatment of adenocarcinomas, as well as BA3361, which is in preclinical studies for treating multiple tumor types. The company was founded in 2007 and is headquartered in San Diego, California.

About Exicure

Exicure, Inc., an early-stage biotechnology company, develops nucleic acid therapies targeting ribonucleic acid against validated targets. The company's preclinical candidate includes SCN9A that is in preclinical studies for the treatment of chronic pain. It also develops immuno-oncology therapeutics based on its proprietary SNA technology. Exicure, Inc. was founded in 2011 and is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois.