Financial Analysis: Nkarta (NASDAQ:NKTX) and Bolt Biotherapeutics (NASDAQ:BOLT)

Bolt Biotherapeutics (NASDAQ:BOLT) and Nkarta (NASDAQ:NKTX) are both small-cap medical companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, risk, earnings, institutional ownership, dividends, valuation and profitability.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations and price targets for Bolt Biotherapeutics and Nkarta, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Bolt Biotherapeutics	1	2	2	0	2.20
Nkarta	1	1	4	0	2.50

Bolt Biotherapeutics currently has a consensus target price of $34.00, suggesting a potential upside of 652.21%. Nkarta has a consensus target price of $13.25, suggesting a potential upside of 390.74%. Given Bolt Biotherapeutics’ higher probable upside, equities research analysts plainly believe Bolt Biotherapeutics is more favorable than Nkarta.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

86.7% of Bolt Biotherapeutics shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 80.5% of Nkarta shares are held by institutional investors. 6.1% of Bolt Biotherapeutics shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 8.4% of Nkarta shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Bolt Biotherapeutics and Nkarta”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Bolt Biotherapeutics	$7.69 million	1.13	-$63.12 million	($22.38)	-0.20
Nkarta	N/A	N/A	-$108.79 million	($1.38)	-1.96

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

Profitability

This table compares Bolt Biotherapeutics and Nkarta’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Bolt Biotherapeutics	N/A	-94.22%	-50.56%
Nkarta	N/A	-27.69%	-22.22%

Volatility and Risk

Bolt Biotherapeutics has a beta of 0.92, suggesting that its stock price is 8% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Nkarta has a beta of 0.54, suggesting that its stock price is 46% less volatile than the S&P 500.

About Bolt Biotherapeutics

Bolt Biotherapeutics, Inc., a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, engages in the development of immunotherapies for the treatment of cancer. The company’s lead product candidate BDC-1001, which is in clinical development for the treatment of patients with human epidermal growth factor receptor 2- positive solid tumors, including breast, colorectal, endometrial, and gastroesophageal cancer. It is also developing BDC-3042, an agonist antibody targeting Dectin-2 for range of tumors, such as head and neck, non-small cell lung, ovarian, triple-negative breast, and other cancer. The company has collaboration agreements with Toray Industries, Genmab A/S, Innovent Biologics, Inc., Bristol-Myers Squibb, and F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd; and license agreement with Stanford University. The company was formerly known as Bolt Therapeutics, Inc. and changed its name to Bolt Biotherapeutics, Inc. in July 2015. Bolt Biotherapeutics, Inc. was incorporated in 2015 and is headquartered in Redwood City, California.

About Nkarta

Nkarta, Inc., a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, develops and commercializes natural killer cell therapies for cancer and autoimmune disease treatment. The company's lead product candidate is NKX019, a chimeric antigen receptor-natural killer (CAR NK) targeting the CD19 antigen that is in Phase 1 clinical trial for the treatment of relapsed/refractory (r/r) non-hodgkin lymphoma, as well as for lupus nephritis. It also develops NKX101, a CAR NK product candidate targeting cells that display NKG2D ligands, which is in Phase I clinical trial for the treatment of r/r acute myeloid leukemia or higher risk myelodysplastic syndromes, as well as for solid tumors. In addition, the company develops NKX070, targeting the CD70 tumor antigen to treat solid and liquid tumors; and NK+T cell therapy for use in the treatment of oncology, autoimmune disease, or infectious disease. It has a research collaboration agreement with CRISPR Therapeutics AG. Nkarta, Inc. was incorporated in 2015 and is based in South San Francisco, California.