Critical Analysis: Kura Oncology (NASDAQ:KURA) versus Exicure (NASDAQ:XCUR)

Exicure (NASDAQ:XCUR) and Kura Oncology (NASDAQ:KURA) are both small-cap healthcare companies, but which is the better business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, dividends, valuation, risk, profitability, institutional ownership and earnings.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Exicure and Kura Oncology”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Exicure	$500,000.00	14.31	-$4.95 million	($1.32)	-0.83
Kura Oncology	$67.48 million	14.04	-$278.67 million	($3.37)	-3.16

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

Profitability

This table compares Exicure and Kura Oncology’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Exicure	N/A	-237.91%	-61.98%
Kura Oncology	-384.30%	-207.18%	-45.17%

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current ratings for Exicure and Kura Oncology, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Exicure	1	0	0	0	1.00
Kura Oncology	1	1	11	0	2.77

Kura Oncology has a consensus price target of $25.69, suggesting a potential upside of 141.20%. Given Kura Oncology’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Kura Oncology is more favorable than Exicure.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

42.8% of Exicure shares are owned by institutional investors. 52.8% of Exicure shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 7.6% of Kura Oncology shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Volatility and Risk

Exicure has a beta of 3.64, meaning that its share price is 264% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Kura Oncology has a beta of 0.47, meaning that its share price is 53% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Exicure beats Kura Oncology on 8 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Exicure

Exicure, Inc., an early-stage biotechnology company, develops nucleic acid therapies targeting ribonucleic acid against validated targets. The company's preclinical candidate includes SCN9A that is in preclinical studies for the treatment of chronic pain. It also develops immuno-oncology therapeutics based on its proprietary SNA technology. Exicure, Inc. was founded in 2011 and is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois.

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.