Head-To-Head Review: Iovance Biotherapeutics (NASDAQ:IOVA) versus Equillium (NASDAQ:EQ)

Iovance Biotherapeutics (NASDAQ:IOVA) and Equillium (NASDAQ:EQ) are both small-cap medical companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their institutional ownership, risk, dividends, valuation, analyst recommendations, profitability and earnings.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent recommendations and price targets for Iovance Biotherapeutics and Equillium, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Iovance Biotherapeutics	2	3	5	0	2.30
Equillium	1	1	6	1	2.78

Iovance Biotherapeutics currently has a consensus target price of $8.43, suggesting a potential upside of 100.20%. Equillium has a consensus target price of $7.57, suggesting a potential upside of 156.66%. Given Equillium’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Equillium is more favorable than Iovance Biotherapeutics.

Earnings and Valuation

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

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Iovance Biotherapeutics	$285.61 million	6.58	-$390.98 million	($0.95)	-4.43
Equillium	$41.10 million	4.54	-$22.40 million	($0.32)	-9.22

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

Insider & Institutional Ownership

77.0% of Iovance Biotherapeutics shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 27.1% of Equillium shares are owned by institutional investors. 7.8% of Iovance Biotherapeutics shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 17.8% of Equillium shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Profitability

This table compares Iovance Biotherapeutics and Equillium’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Iovance Biotherapeutics	-123.92%	-50.17%	-38.77%
Equillium	N/A	-61.43%	-53.72%

Risk & Volatility

Iovance Biotherapeutics has a beta of 0.74, indicating that its stock price is 26% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Equillium has a beta of 1.77, indicating that its stock price is 77% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Equillium beats Iovance Biotherapeutics on 9 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

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.

About Equillium

Equillium, Inc., a clinical-stage biotechnology company, develops and sells products to treat severe autoimmune and inflammatory, or immuno-inflammatory disorders with unmet medical need. The company's lead product candidate is itolizumab (EQ001), a first-in-class monoclonal antibody that targets the immune checkpoint receptor CD6, which is in Phase III clinical trials for the treatment of acute graft-versus-host disease; completed Phase I clinical trial for the treatment of ulcerative colitis; and Phase I clinical trial for the treatment of lupus nephritis. It also develops EQ101 completed phase 1/2 for treatment of cutaneous T cell lymphoma and alopecia areata; and EQ302 to treat gastrointestinal indications. In addition, it serves dermatology, gastroenterology, rheumatology, hematology, transplant science, oncology, and pulmonology area. The company was formerly known as Attenuate Biopharmaceuticals, Inc. and changed its name to Equillium, Inc. in May 2017. Equillium, Inc. was incorporated in 2017 and is headquartered in La Jolla, California.