NKGen Biotech (NYSE:NKGN) versus Relay Therapeutics (NASDAQ:RLAY) Financial Contrast

Relay Therapeutics (NASDAQ:RLAY) and NKGen Biotech (NYSE:NKGN) are both small-cap medical companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their earnings, profitability, risk, institutional ownership, valuation, dividends and analyst recommendations.

Profitability

This table compares Relay Therapeutics and NKGen Biotech’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Relay Therapeutics	N/A	-45.75%	-40.75%
NKGen Biotech	N/A	N/A	-479.36%

Volatility and Risk

Relay Therapeutics has a beta of 1.67, meaning that its stock price is 67% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, NKGen Biotech has a beta of 0.53, meaning that its stock price is 47% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

97.0% of Relay Therapeutics shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 76.2% of NKGen Biotech shares are held by institutional investors. 4.3% of Relay Therapeutics shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 74.7% of NKGen Biotech shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Relay Therapeutics and NKGen Biotech”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Relay Therapeutics	$25.55 million	30.45	-$341.97 million	($2.61)	-2.23
NKGen Biotech	$80,000.00	106.09	-$82.94 million	($5.08)	-0.05

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

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent ratings for Relay Therapeutics and NKGen Biotech, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Relay Therapeutics	0	1	9	0	2.90
NKGen Biotech	0	0	0	0	0.00

Relay Therapeutics presently has a consensus price target of $21.22, suggesting a potential upside of 265.27%. Given Relay Therapeutics’ stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities analysts plainly believe Relay Therapeutics is more favorable than NKGen Biotech.

Summary

Relay Therapeutics beats NKGen Biotech on 8 of the 12 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Relay Therapeutics

Relay Therapeutics, Inc. operates as a clinical-stage precision medicines company. It engages in transforming the drug discovery process with an initial focus on enhancing small molecule therapeutic discovery in targeted oncology and genetic disease indications. The company’s lead product candidates include RLY-4008, an oral small molecule inhibitor of fibroblast growth factor receptor 2 (FGFR2), which is in a first-in-human clinical trial for patients with advanced or metastatic FGFR2-altered solid tumors; RLY-2608, a lead mutant-PI3Ka inhibitor program that targets phosphoinostide 3 kinase alpha; and Migoprotafib (GDC-1971), an oral, small molecule, potent and selective inhibitor of the protein tyrosine phosphatase SHP2 that binds and stabilizes Src homology region 2 domain-containing phosphatase-2 (SHP2) as a monotherapy in patients with advanced or metastatic solid tumors. In addition, it has collaboration and license agreements with D. E. Shaw Research, LLC to research certain biological targets through the use of D. E. Shaw Research computational modeling capabilities focused on analysis of protein motion to develop and commercialize compounds and products directed to such targets; and Genentech, Inc. for the development and commercialization of GDC-1971. The company was formerly known as Allostery, Inc. and changed its name to Relay Therapeutics, Inc. in December 2015. Relay Therapeutics, Inc. was incorporated in 2015 and is headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

About NKGen Biotech

NKGen Biotech, Inc. operates as a clinical-stage biotechnology company that focuses on the development and commercialization of autologous, allogeneic, and CAR-NK natural killer cell therapies. It develops SNK01, an autologous NK cell therapy; and SNK02, an allogeneic NK cell therapy, which are in Phase 1 clinical trials. The company was founded in 2017 and is based in Santa Ana, California.