Contrasting Burning Rock Biotech (NASDAQ:BNR) and Grail (NASDAQ:GRAL)

Burning Rock Biotech (NASDAQ:BNR) and Grail (NASDAQ:GRAL) are both small-cap business services companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their dividends, earnings, profitability, analyst recommendations, risk, institutional ownership and valuation.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations and price targets for Burning Rock Biotech and Grail, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Burning Rock Biotech	0	0	0	0	0.00
Grail	0	3	1	0	2.25

Grail has a consensus target price of $26.00, suggesting a potential downside of 26.14%. Given Grail’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Grail is more favorable than Burning Rock Biotech.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

30.0% of Burning Rock Biotech shares are owned by institutional investors. 30.3% of Burning Rock Biotech shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 1.9% of Grail shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

This table compares Burning Rock Biotech and Grail’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Burning Rock Biotech	-83.50%	-60.68%	-42.30%
Grail	N/A	N/A	N/A

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Burning Rock Biotech and Grail”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Burning Rock Biotech	$515.82 million	0.05	-$92.07 million	($1.88)	-1.24
Grail	$125.60 million	9.89	N/A	N/A	N/A

Grail has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Burning Rock Biotech.

Summary

Grail beats Burning Rock Biotech on 7 of the 10 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Burning Rock Biotech

Burning Rock Biotech Limited primarily develops and commercializes cancer therapy selection tests in the People's Republic of China. It operates in three segments: Central Laboratory Business, In-Hospital Business, and Pharma Research and Development Services. The company primarily offers next-generation sequencing-based tissue and liquid biopsy cancer therapy selection and prognosis prediction tests for various range of cancer types, including lung cancer, gastrointestinal cancer, prostate cancer, breast cancer, lymphomas, thyroid cancer, colorectal cancer, ovarian cancer, pancreatic cancer, and bladder cancer using tissue and liquid biopsy samples. Its principal products include OncoCompass IO, a corresponding test for liquid biopsy samples; OncoScreen IO, a pan-cancer test for tissue samples; and OncoCompass Target, a ctDNA liquid biopsy-based test for NSCLC. In addition, the company provides ColonCore for assessing microsatellite loci related to MSI status and detecting mutations in genes associated with gastrointestinal cancers; and brPROPHET, a pre-operative ctDNA detection and post-operative MRD calling for relapsed patients. Further, it has development and commercialization agreement with Myriad Genetics, Inc. to in-license Myriad myChoice tumor testing in China; licensing agreement with Oncocyte Corporation to in-license DetermaRx, a risk stratification test for early stage lung cancer patients in China; and collaborations on clinical trials and research studies with AstraZeneca, Bayer, Johnson & Johnson, CStone, BeiGene, Abbisko Therapeutics, and IMPACT Therapeutics and Merck KGaA. Additionally, the company offers OncoMaster, an automatic NGS data analysis and report interpretation machine for in-hospital model. Burning Rock Biotech Limited was incorporated in 2014 and is headquartered in Guangzhou, China.

About Grail

GRAIL, Inc. operates as a commercial-stage healthcare company, which engages in the development of a technology for early detection of cancer. It utilizes machine learning, software, and automation to detect and identify multiple deadly cancer types in earlier stages. The company was founded by Jeffrey T. Huber, William H. Rastetter, Mostafa Ronaghi, and Richard D. Klausner on September 11, 2015 and is headquartered in Menlo Park, CA.