Reviewing Aptose Biosciences (NASDAQ:APTO) and CEL-SCI (NYSE:CVM)

CEL-SCI (NYSE:CVM) and Aptose Biosciences (NASDAQ:APTO) are both small-cap medical companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, dividends, institutional ownership, profitability, risk, valuation and earnings.

Risk and Volatility

CEL-SCI has a beta of 0.66, meaning that its stock price is 34% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Aptose Biosciences has a beta of 1.25, meaning that its stock price is 25% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations and price targets for CEL-SCI and Aptose Biosciences, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
CEL-SCI	0	0	0	0	N/A
Aptose Biosciences	0	0	4	0	3.00

Aptose Biosciences has a consensus price target of $9.00, indicating a potential upside of 2,339.02%. Given Aptose Biosciences’ higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Aptose Biosciences is more favorable than CEL-SCI.

Profitability

This table compares CEL-SCI and Aptose Biosciences’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
CEL-SCI	N/A	-239.31%	-102.69%
Aptose Biosciences	N/A	-5,683.22%	-279.77%

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares CEL-SCI and Aptose Biosciences”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
CEL-SCI	N/A	N/A	-$32.19 million	($0.63)	-1.87
Aptose Biosciences	N/A	N/A	-$51.21 million	($6.20)	-0.06

CEL-SCI is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Aptose Biosciences, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

12.1% of CEL-SCI shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 26.6% of Aptose Biosciences shares are owned by institutional investors. 16.2% of CEL-SCI shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 4.6% of Aptose Biosciences shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

About CEL-SCI

CEL-SCI Corporation, a clinical-stage biotechnology company, engages in the research and development of immune system therapy for the treatment of cancer and other diseases in the United States. The company's lead immunotherapy is Multikine, which has completed Phase 3 clinical trials for the potential treatment of certain head and neck cancers. It is also developing products based on its proprietary technology Ligand Epitope Antigen Presentation System (LEAPS) technology, a patented T-cell modulation process that stimulates the human immune system to fight bacterial, viral, parasitic infections, autoimmune conditions, allergies, transplantation rejections, and cancer. In addition, the company's product pipeline includes CEL-2000; CEL-4000; and CEL-5000, which are LEAPS-based product candidates in preclinical trials for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis disease. CEL-SCI Corporation was incorporated in 1983 and is headquartered in Vienna, Virginia.

About Aptose Biosciences

Aptose Biosciences Inc., a clinical-stage biotechnology company, discovers and develops personalized therapies addressing unmet medical needs in oncology in Canada. Its lead clinical program is APTO-253, which is a Phase I clinical trial for the treatment of patients with relapsed or refractory hematologic malignancies. The company has an agreement with CrystalGenomics, Inc. to research, develop, and commercialize CG026806, a non-covalent small molecule therapeutic agent, which is in preclinical stage for the treatment of acute myeloid leukemia and chronic lymphocytic leukemia/mantle cell lymphoma. The company was formerly known as Lorus Therapeutics Inc. and changed its name to Aptose Biosciences Inc. in August 2014. Aptose Biosciences Inc. was founded in 1986 and is headquartered in Mississauga, Canada.