Comparing Molecular Partners (NASDAQ:MOLN) & Protara Therapeutics (NASDAQ:TARA)

Molecular Partners (NASDAQ:MOLN) and Protara Therapeutics (NASDAQ:TARA) 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.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

26.6% of Molecular Partners shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 38.1% of Protara Therapeutics shares are held by institutional investors. 5.9% of Molecular Partners shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 12.5% of Protara Therapeutics 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.

Volatility and Risk

Molecular Partners has a beta of 0.77, suggesting that its stock price is 23% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Protara Therapeutics has a beta of 1.85, suggesting that its stock price is 85% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations and price targets for Molecular Partners and Protara Therapeutics, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Molecular Partners	0	1	0	0	2.00
Protara Therapeutics	0	0	2	0	3.00

Molecular Partners currently has a consensus target price of $4.50, suggesting a potential downside of 38.02%. Protara Therapeutics has a consensus target price of $26.50, suggesting a potential upside of 1,161.90%. Given Protara Therapeutics’ stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Protara Therapeutics is more favorable than Molecular Partners.

Profitability

This table compares Molecular Partners and Protara Therapeutics’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Molecular Partners	-864.64%	-31.42%	-28.20%
Protara Therapeutics	N/A	-58.80%	-51.37%

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Molecular Partners and Protara Therapeutics’ gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Molecular Partners	$7.84 million	33.97	-$69.04 million	($2.02)	-3.59
Protara Therapeutics	N/A	N/A	-$40.42 million	($3.74)	-0.56

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

Summary

Protara Therapeutics beats Molecular Partners on 9 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Molecular Partners

Molecular Partners AG, a clinical-stage biotechnology company, develops designed ankyrin repeat proteins therapeutics for the treatment of oncology and virology diseases in Switzerland. The company develops MP0317, a CD40 agonist designed to activate immune cells within the tumor microenvironment by anchoring to fibroblast activation protein that is in Phase I clinical trial; and MP0533, a novel tetra-specific T cell-engaging DARPin for acute myeloid leukemia. It also develops Switch-DARPin platform, a multispecific cKIT x CD16a x CD47 Switch-DARPin program for targeted and conditional immune cell activation; and Radio-DARPin Therapy (RDT) platform, a delivery system for effective and selective delivery of radioactive payloads to solid tumors. It has license and research collaboration agreements with Novartis Pharma AG to develop DARPin-conjugated radioligand therapies; and collaboration agreement with Orano Med SAS to develop novel Radio-DARPin therapeutics. Molecular Partners AG was incorporated in 2004 and is headquartered in Schlieren, Switzerland.

About Protara Therapeutics

Protara Therapeutics, Inc., a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, engages in advancing transformative therapies for the treatment of cancer and rare diseases. The company's lead program is TARA-002, an investigational cell therapy, which is in Phase II clinical trial for the treatment of non-muscle invasive bladder cancer and lymphatic malformations. It is also developing intravenous choline chloride, an investigational phospholipid substrate replacement therapy that is in Phase II clinical trial for patients receiving parenteral nutrition. The company is headquartered in New York, New York.