Comparing Sana Biotechnology (NASDAQ:SANA) & Aptose Biosciences (NASDAQ:APTO)

Aptose Biosciences (NASDAQ:APTO) and Sana Biotechnology (NASDAQ:SANA) are both small-cap medical companies, but which is the better business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, valuation, earnings, risk, dividends and profitability.

Profitability

This table compares Aptose Biosciences and Sana Biotechnology’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Aptose Biosciences	N/A	-5,683.22%	-300.44%
Sana Biotechnology	N/A	-84.22%	-44.97%

Institutional and Insider Ownership

26.6% of Aptose Biosciences shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 88.2% of Sana Biotechnology shares are owned by institutional investors. 1.3% of Aptose Biosciences shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 31.1% of Sana Biotechnology shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Volatility and Risk

Aptose Biosciences has a beta of 1.04, suggesting that its share price is 4% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Sana Biotechnology has a beta of 1.78, suggesting that its share price is 78% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Aptose Biosciences and Sana Biotechnology”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Aptose Biosciences	N/A	N/A	-$51.21 million	($89.19)	N/A
Sana Biotechnology	N/A	N/A	-$283.26 million	($1.16)	-1.63

Sana Biotechnology is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Aptose Biosciences, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and target prices for Aptose Biosciences and Sana Biotechnology, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Aptose Biosciences	0	0	2	1	3.33
Sana Biotechnology	0	1	6	0	2.86

Aptose Biosciences presently has a consensus price target of $93.00, suggesting a potential upside of 0.00%. Sana Biotechnology has a consensus price target of $10.80, suggesting a potential upside of 471.43%. Given Sana Biotechnology’s higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Sana Biotechnology is more favorable than Aptose Biosciences.

Summary

Sana Biotechnology beats Aptose Biosciences on 8 of the 12 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Aptose Biosciences

Aptose Biosciences Inc., a clinical-stage biotechnology company, discovers and develops personalized therapies addressing unmet medical needs in oncology in Canada. Its lead clinical program is APTO-253, which is a Phase I clinical trial for the treatment of patients with relapsed or refractory hematologic malignancies. The company has an agreement with CrystalGenomics, Inc. to research, develop, and commercialize CG026806, a non-covalent small molecule therapeutic agent, which is in preclinical stage for the treatment of acute myeloid leukemia and chronic lymphocytic leukemia/mantle cell lymphoma. The company was formerly known as Lorus Therapeutics Inc. and changed its name to Aptose Biosciences Inc. in August 2014. Aptose Biosciences Inc. was founded in 1986 and is headquartered in Mississauga, Canada.

About Sana Biotechnology

Sana Biotechnology, Inc., a biotechnology company, focuses on utilizing engineered cells as medicines. It develops ex vivo and in vivo cell engineering platforms for various therapeutic areas with unmet treatment needs, including oncology, diabetes, central nervous system disorders, B-cell-mediated autoimmune, and others. The company’s product candidates include SC291 that is used as allogeneic cell therapies for hematologic malignancies; ARDENT for a potential treatment for non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, and chronic lymphoblastic leukemia; GLEAM, to treat multiple autoimmune disorders that involve production of autoimmune antibodies, including lupus nephritis, extrarenal lupus, antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibody -associated vasculitis, and others. It is developing SC262 to treat patients with relapsed and/or refractory B-cell malignancies; SC255 for multiple myeloma treatment; SC379, a therapy for patients with certain central nervous system disorders healthy allogeneic glial progenitor cells; SC451, a product candidate to treat diabetes, with an initial focus on type 1 diabetes mellitus; and UP421 that reduces long-term exogenous insulin dependence. The company has an option and license agreement with Beam Therapeutics Inc. for use of Beam’s proprietary CRISPR Cas12b nuclease editing technology to research, develop, and commercialize engineered cell therapy products; and a license agreement with Harvard College to access certain intellectual property for the development of hypoimmune-modified cells. The company was formerly known as FD Therapeutics, Inc. and changed its name to Sana Biotechnology, Inc. in September 2018. Sana Biotechnology, Inc. was incorporated in 2018 and is headquartered in Seattle, Washington.