NKGen Biotech (NYSE:NKGN) & Vaxart (NASDAQ:VXRT) Critical Comparison

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

Institutional and Insider Ownership

76.2% of NKGen Biotech shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 18.0% of Vaxart shares are owned by institutional investors. 10.4% of NKGen Biotech shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 2.6% of Vaxart shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and target prices for NKGen Biotech and Vaxart, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
NKGen Biotech	0	0	0	0	0.00
Vaxart	0	0	2	0	3.00

Vaxart has a consensus price target of $3.00, suggesting a potential upside of 705.37%. Given Vaxart’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Vaxart is more favorable than NKGen Biotech.

Profitability

This table compares NKGen Biotech and Vaxart’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%
Vaxart	-431.61%	-110.46%	-62.78%

Risk and Volatility

NKGen Biotech has a beta of 0.45, meaning that its stock price is 55% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Vaxart has a beta of 1.69, meaning that its stock price is 69% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares NKGen Biotech and Vaxart”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
NKGen Biotech	$80,000.00	94.17	-$82.94 million	($2.45)	-0.07
Vaxart	$28.70 million	2.96	-$82.46 million	($0.34)	-1.10

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

Summary

Vaxart beats NKGen Biotech on 8 of the 14 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 Vaxart

Vaxart, Inc., a clinical-stage biotechnology company, discovers and develops oral recombinant protein vaccines based on its proprietary oral vaccine platform. The company’s product pipeline includes norovirus vaccine, a bivalent oral tablet vaccine in Phase 2 clinical trial for the GI.1 and GII.4 norovirus strains; coronavirus vaccine, which is in Phase 2 clinical trial, for the treatment of SARS-CoV-2 infection; seasonal influenza vaccine, which is in Phase 2 clinical trial, to treat H1 influenza infection; and human papillomavirus therapeutic vaccine, which is in preclinical stage, that targets HPV-16 and HPV-18 for cervical cancers and precancerous cervical lesions. It has a license agreement with Altesa Biosciences, Inc. to develop and commercialize Vapendavir, a capsid-binding broad-spectrum antiviral. Vaxart, Inc. is headquartered in South San Francisco, California.