Compugen (NASDAQ:CGEN) versus PepGen (NASDAQ:PEPG) Critical Review

PepGen (NASDAQ:PEPG) and Compugen (NASDAQ:CGEN) are both small-cap medical companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, dividends, valuation, earnings and profitability.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares PepGen and Compugen”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
PepGen	N/A	N/A	-$89.98 million	($2.82)	-1.97
Compugen	$6.90 million	19.78	-$14.23 million	($0.30)	-5.10

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

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent ratings and recommmendations for PepGen and Compugen, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
PepGen	2	0	4	0	2.33
Compugen	1	0	1	0	2.00

PepGen currently has a consensus price target of $10.00, indicating a potential upside of 79.86%. Compugen has a consensus price target of $4.00, indicating a potential upside of 161.44%. Given Compugen’s higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Compugen is more favorable than PepGen.

Risk & Volatility

PepGen has a beta of 1.95, meaning that its stock price is 95% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Compugen has a beta of 2.59, meaning that its stock price is 159% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

58.0% of PepGen shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 12.2% of Compugen shares are held by institutional investors. 5.2% of PepGen shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 9.5% of Compugen shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

This table compares PepGen and Compugen’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
PepGen	N/A	-84.15%	-65.59%
Compugen	-87.45%	-34.77%	-16.82%

Summary

Compugen beats PepGen on 8 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

About PepGen

PepGen Inc., a clinical-stage biotechnology company, focuses on the development of oligonucleotide therapeutics for use in the treatment of severe neuromuscular and neurologic diseases. Its lead product candidate is PGN-EDO51, an EDO peptide that is in Phase 2 clinical trial to treat Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) patients. The company is also developing PGN-EDODM1, an EDO peptide-conjugated PMO, which is in Phase 1 clinical trial for the treatment of myotonic dystrophy type 1, as well as EDO therapeutic candidates, such as PGN-EDO53, PGN-EDO45, and PGN-EDO44 for the treatment of DMD. PepGen Inc. was founded in 2018 and is based in Boston, Massachusetts.

About Compugen

Compugen Ltd., a clinical-stage therapeutic discovery and development company, researches, develops, and commercializes therapeutic and product candidates in Israel, the United States, and Europe. The company’s immuno-oncology pipeline consists of COM701, an anti-PVRIG antibody that is in Phase I clinical study used for the treatment of solid tumors; COM902, a therapeutic antibody targeting TIGIT, which is in Phase I monotherapy clinical study in patients with advanced malignancies through sequential dose escalations; Bapotulimab, a therapeutic antibody targeting ILDR2 that is in Phase I clinical study in patients with naïve head and neck squamous cell carcinoma; and Rilvegostomig, a novel anti-TIGIT/PD-1 bispecific antibody, which is in Phase II clinical study in patients with advanced or metastatic non-small cell lung cancer. Its therapeutic pipeline also includes early-stage immuno-oncology programs focused to address various mechanisms of immune resistance; and COM503, high affinity antibody, which blocks the interaction between IL-18 binding protein and IL-18. The company has collaboration agreement with Bayer Pharma AG for the research, development, and commercialization of antibody-based therapeutics against the company’s immune checkpoint regulators; Bristol-Myers Squibb to evaluate the safety and tolerability of COM701 in combination with Bristol-Myers Squibb’s PD-1 immune checkpoint inhibitor Opdivo in patients with advanced solid tumors; and Johns Hopkins School of Medicine to evaluate novel T cell and myeloid checkpoint targets. It has license agreement with AstraZeneca for the development of bi-specific and multi-specific immuno-oncology antibody products; and research collaboration with Johns Hopkins University for myeloid. Compugen Ltd. was incorporated in 1993 and is headquartered in Holon, Israel.