Arcturus Therapeutics (NASDAQ:ARCT – Get Free Report) and Kura Oncology (NASDAQ:KURA – Get Free Report) are both small-cap healthcare companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, valuation, profitability, risk, dividends and earnings.
Volatility & Risk
Arcturus Therapeutics has a beta of 2.48, indicating that its share price is 148% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Kura Oncology has a beta of 0.47, indicating that its share price is 53% less volatile than the S&P 500.
Profitability
This table compares Arcturus Therapeutics and Kura Oncology’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.
| Net Margins | Return on Equity | Return on Assets | |
| Arcturus Therapeutics | -317.62% | -46.54% | -36.46% |
| Kura Oncology | -384.30% | -207.18% | -45.17% |
Valuation and Earnings
This table compares Arcturus Therapeutics and Kura Oncology”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.
| Gross Revenue | Price/Sales Ratio | Net Income | Earnings Per Share | Price/Earnings Ratio | |
| Arcturus Therapeutics | $82.03 million | 3.58 | -$65.78 million | ($3.31) | -3.12 |
| Kura Oncology | $77.22 million | 10.46 | -$278.67 million | ($3.37) | -2.69 |
Arcturus Therapeutics has higher revenue and earnings than Kura Oncology. Arcturus Therapeutics is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Kura Oncology, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Analyst Ratings
This is a summary of recent recommendations for Arcturus Therapeutics and Kura Oncology, as provided by MarketBeat.
| Sell Ratings | Hold Ratings | Buy Ratings | Strong Buy Ratings | Rating Score | |
| Arcturus Therapeutics | 1 | 3 | 7 | 1 | 2.67 |
| Kura Oncology | 1 | 1 | 11 | 0 | 2.77 |
Arcturus Therapeutics currently has a consensus target price of $22.00, suggesting a potential upside of 112.77%. Kura Oncology has a consensus target price of $25.35, suggesting a potential upside of 179.22%. Given Kura Oncology’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Kura Oncology is more favorable than Arcturus Therapeutics.
Insider and Institutional Ownership
94.5% of Arcturus Therapeutics shares are owned by institutional investors. 17.8% of Arcturus Therapeutics shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 7.6% of Kura Oncology shares are owned by 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.
Summary
Arcturus Therapeutics beats Kura Oncology on 10 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.
About Arcturus Therapeutics
Arcturus Therapeutics Holdings Inc., a late-stage clinical messenger RNA medicines and vaccine company, focuses on the development of infectious disease vaccines and other products within liver and respiratory rare diseases. Its technology platforms include LUNAR lipid-mediated delivery and STARR mRNA. The company is developing ARCT-810 (LUNAR-OTC), a mRNA-based therapeutic candidate, which is in Phase 2 clinical trial for treating ornithine transcarbamylase deficiency; and ARCT-154 (LUNAR-COV19), a mRNA vaccine candidate that is in Phase 3 arm of a Phase 1/2/3 study in Vietnam for the treatment of COVID-19, as well as ARCT-032 (LUNAR-CF), a mRNA therapeutic candidate for cystic fibrosis. Its product pipeline includes, ARCT-2301 for bivalent: ancestral/omicron which is in Phase 3; ARCT-2303 for monovalent that is in Phase 3; ARCT-2138 for quadrivalent which is in Phase 1; and LUNAR-FLU which is in pre-clinical trial. Arcturus Therapeutics Holdings Inc. was founded in 2013 and is headquartered in San Diego, California.
About Kura Oncology
Kura Oncology, Inc., a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, develops medicines for the treatment of cancer. The company’s pipeline consists of small molecule product candidates that target cancer. Its lead product candidates are ziftomenib, an orally bioavailable small molecule inhibitor of the menin-KMT2A interaction for the treatment of genetically defined subsets of acute leukemias, including acute myeloid leukemia and acute lymphoblastic leukemia; tipifarnib, an orally bioavailable farnesyl transferase inhibitor combination with alpelisib for patients with PIK3CA-dependent HNSCC; and KO-2806, a farnesyl transferase inhibitor for the treatment of solid tumors. It has a clinical collaboration with Novartis Pharma AG to evaluate the combination of tipifarnib and alpelisib in patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma whose tumors have HRAS overexpression and/or PIK3CA mutation and/or amplification. The company was founded in 2014 and is headquartered in San Diego, California.
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