Financial Review: Atara Biotherapeutics (NASDAQ:ATRA) & Recursion Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:RXRX)

Atara Biotherapeutics (NASDAQ:ATRA) and Recursion Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:RXRX) are both small-cap medical companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their risk, earnings, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, valuation, dividends and profitability.

Volatility & Risk

Atara Biotherapeutics has a beta of 0.5, suggesting that its stock price is 50% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Recursion Pharmaceuticals has a beta of 0.82, suggesting that its stock price is 18% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation and Earnings

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

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Atara Biotherapeutics	$62.39 million	0.62	-$276.13 million	($53.25)	-0.15
Recursion Pharmaceuticals	$44.58 million	44.01	-$328.07 million	($1.60)	-4.36

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

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings and recommmendations for Atara Biotherapeutics and Recursion Pharmaceuticals, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Atara Biotherapeutics	1	2	2	0	2.20
Recursion Pharmaceuticals	0	4	2	0	2.33

Atara Biotherapeutics presently has a consensus target price of $14.00, suggesting a potential upside of 73.37%. Recursion Pharmaceuticals has a consensus target price of $9.40, suggesting a potential upside of 34.67%. Given Atara Biotherapeutics’ higher probable upside, equities analysts clearly believe Atara Biotherapeutics is more favorable than Recursion Pharmaceuticals.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

70.9% of Atara Biotherapeutics shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 89.1% of Recursion Pharmaceuticals shares are held by institutional investors. 3.7% of Atara Biotherapeutics shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 15.8% of Recursion Pharmaceuticals shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

This table compares Atara Biotherapeutics and Recursion Pharmaceuticals’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Atara Biotherapeutics	-290.20%	N/A	-113.71%
Recursion Pharmaceuticals	-755.37%	-79.47%	-57.28%

Summary

Recursion Pharmaceuticals beats Atara Biotherapeutics on 7 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Atara Biotherapeutics

Atara Biotherapeutics, Inc. develops therapies for patients with solid tumors, hematologic cancers, and autoimmune diseases in the United States. Its lead product includes Tab-cel (tabelecleucel), a T-cell immunotherapy program that is in Phase 3 clinical trials for the treatment of epstein-barr virus (EBV) driven post-transplant lymphoproliferative disease, as well as nasopharyngeal carcinoma. Its CAR T immunotherapy pipeline products include ATA2271 and ATA3271 to treat mesothelin; and ATA3219 for the treatment of B-cell malignancies, as well as ATA188 that is in Phase 2 clinical trials to treat multiple sclerosis. Atara Biotherapeutics, Inc. has a license agreement with Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center; license, and research and development collaboration agreement with QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute; and strategic collaboration with H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center. The company was incorporated in 2012 and is headquartered in Thousand Oaks, California.

About Recursion Pharmaceuticals

Recursion Pharmaceuticals, Inc. operates as a clinical-stage biotechnology company, engages in the decoding biology by integrating technological innovations across biology, chemistry, automation, data science, and engineering to industrialize drug discovery. The company develops REC-994, which is in Phase 2 clinical trial to treat cerebral cavernous malformation; REC-2282, which is in Phase 2/3 clinical trial for the treatment of neurofibromatosis type 2; REC-4881, which is in Phase 1b/2 clinical trial to treat familial adenomatous polyposis; REC-3964, which is in Phase 1 clinical trial to treat Clostridioides difficile infection; and REC-4881, which is in Phase 2 clinical trial to treat AXIN1 or APC mutant cancers. Its preclinical stage product includes RBM39 to treat HR-proficient ovarian cancer. The company has collaboration and agreement with Bayer AG; the University of Utah Research Foundation; Ohio State Innovation Foundation; Roche & Genentech; and Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited. Recursion Pharmaceuticals, Inc. was incorporated in 2013 and is headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah.