Comparing Iovance Biotherapeutics (NASDAQ:IOVA) & Black Diamond Therapeutics (NASDAQ:BDTX)

Black Diamond Therapeutics (NASDAQ:BDTX) and Iovance Biotherapeutics (NASDAQ:IOVA) are both small-cap medical companies, but which is the better business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, profitability, earnings, dividends, institutional ownership, analyst recommendations and valuation.

Volatility and Risk

Black Diamond Therapeutics has a beta of 3.33, meaning that its share price is 233% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Iovance Biotherapeutics has a beta of 0.83, meaning that its share price is 17% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Black Diamond Therapeutics and Iovance Biotherapeutics”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Black Diamond Therapeutics	$70.00 million	2.17	-$69.68 million	$0.36	7.40
Iovance Biotherapeutics	$164.07 million	7.00	-$372.18 million	($1.20)	-2.41

Black Diamond Therapeutics has higher earnings, but lower revenue than Iovance Biotherapeutics. Iovance Biotherapeutics is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Black Diamond Therapeutics, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

95.5% of Black Diamond Therapeutics shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 77.0% of Iovance Biotherapeutics shares are owned by institutional investors. 6.0% of Black Diamond Therapeutics shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 10.3% of Iovance Biotherapeutics shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

This table compares Black Diamond Therapeutics and Iovance Biotherapeutics’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Black Diamond Therapeutics	N/A	17.78%	13.80%
Iovance Biotherapeutics	-158.78%	-55.24%	-43.11%

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent ratings for Black Diamond Therapeutics and Iovance Biotherapeutics, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Black Diamond Therapeutics	1	2	4	1	2.63
Iovance Biotherapeutics	2	7	6	0	2.27

Black Diamond Therapeutics currently has a consensus price target of $9.50, suggesting a potential upside of 256.47%. Iovance Biotherapeutics has a consensus price target of $11.10, suggesting a potential upside of 283.42%. Given Iovance Biotherapeutics’ higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Iovance Biotherapeutics is more favorable than Black Diamond Therapeutics.

Summary

Black Diamond Therapeutics beats Iovance Biotherapeutics on 10 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Black Diamond Therapeutics

Black Diamond Therapeutics, Inc., a clinical-stage oncology medicine company, focuses on the discovery and development of MasterKey therapies for patients with genetically defined tumors. The company's lead product candidate is BDTX-1535, a brain-penetrant epidermal growth factor receptor MasterKey inhibitor, which is in phase 2 clinical trial for the treatment of epidermal growth factor receptor mutant non-small cell lung cancer, as well as phase 1 clinical trial to treat glioblastoma. It is also developing BDTX-4933, a brain-penetrant RAF MasterKey inhibitor targeting KRAS, NRAS, and BRAF alterations in solid tumors that is in phase 1 clinical trial. In addition, the company is developing BDTX-4876, a MasterKey inhibitor of oncogenic FGFR2/3 mutations with selectivity versus FGFR1/4, which is in preclinical stage. The company was formerly known as ASET Therapeutics, Inc. and changed its name to Black Diamond Therapeutics, Inc. in January 2018. Black Diamond Therapeutics, Inc. was incorporated in 2014 and is headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

About Iovance Biotherapeutics

Iovance Biotherapeutics, Inc., a commercial-stage biotechnology company, develops and commercializes cell therapies using autologous tumor infiltrating lymphocyte for the treatment of metastatic melanoma and other solid tumor cancers in the United States. The company offers Amtagvi, a tumor-derived autologous T cell immunotherapy used to treat adult patients with unresectable or metastatic melanoma; and Proleukin, an interleukin-2 product for the treatment of patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma. It also develops lifileucel in combination with pembrolizumab to treat frontline advanced melanoma patients; LN-145 for the treatment of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and solid tumor cancers; IOV-4001, which is in Phase 1/2 IOV-GM1-201 clinical trial, for the treatment of NSCLC; and lifileucel for gynecological cancers. The company has collaborations and licensing agreements with WuXi Advanced Therapies, Inc.; National Institutes of Health; the National Cancer Institute; H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center; The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center; Cellectis S.A.; Novartis Pharma AG; and Boehringer Ingelheim Biopharmaceuticals GmbH. The company was formerly known as Lion Biotechnologies, Inc. and changed its name to Iovance Biotherapeutics, Inc. in June 2017. Iovance Biotherapeutics, Inc. was incorporated in 2007 and is headquartered in San Carlos, California.