Cidara Therapeutics (NASDAQ:CDTX) versus Ginkgo Bioworks (NYSE:DNA) Financial Survey

Ginkgo Bioworks (NYSE:DNA) and Cidara Therapeutics (NASDAQ:CDTX) are both small-cap medical companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, profitability, analyst recommendations, dividends, valuation, earnings and risk.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent ratings for Ginkgo Bioworks and Cidara Therapeutics, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Ginkgo Bioworks	3	1	1	0	1.60
Cidara Therapeutics	0	0	5	1	3.17

Ginkgo Bioworks currently has a consensus target price of $4.58, suggesting a potential downside of 51.17%. Cidara Therapeutics has a consensus target price of $32.20, suggesting a potential upside of 38.44%. Given Cidara Therapeutics’ stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Cidara Therapeutics is more favorable than Ginkgo Bioworks.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

78.6% of Ginkgo Bioworks shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 35.8% of Cidara Therapeutics shares are held by institutional investors. 9.7% of Ginkgo Bioworks shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 7.6% of Cidara Therapeutics shares are held 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.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Ginkgo Bioworks and Cidara Therapeutics”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Ginkgo Bioworks	$251.46 million	2.14	-$892.87 million	($13.08)	-0.72
Cidara Therapeutics	$44.65 million	3.67	-$22.93 million	($25.52)	-0.91

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

Volatility and Risk

Ginkgo Bioworks has a beta of 1.17, meaning that its stock price is 17% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Cidara Therapeutics has a beta of 1.13, meaning that its stock price is 13% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Ginkgo Bioworks and Cidara Therapeutics’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Ginkgo Bioworks	-298.78%	-58.54%	-34.24%
Cidara Therapeutics	-289.05%	-69.64%	-33.73%

Summary

Cidara Therapeutics beats Ginkgo Bioworks on 8 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Ginkgo Bioworks

Ginkgo Bioworks Holdings, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, develops platform for cell programming in the United States. Its platform is used to program cells to enable biological production of products, such as novel therapeutics, food ingredients, and chemicals derived from petroleum. It serves pharma and biotech, agriculture, industrial and environment, food and nutrition, consumer and technology, and government and defense industries. Ginkgo Bioworks Holdings, Inc. was founded in 2008 and is headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts.

About Cidara Therapeutics

Cidara Therapeutics, Inc., a biotechnology company, focuses on developing targeted therapies for patients facing cancers and other serious diseases. The company's product includes rezafungin acetate, a novel molecule in the echinocandin class of antifungals for the treatment and prevention of invasive fungal infections, including candidemia and invasive candidiasis, which are fungal infections associated with high mortality rates. It also develops its Cloudbreak platform that enables development of novel drug-Fc conjugates, that includes CD388, a potent antiviral designed to deliver universal prevention and treatment of seasonal and pandemic influenza, which is in Phase 1 and Phase 2a clinical trials. The company was formerly known as K2 Therapeutics, Inc. and changed its name to Cidara Therapeutics, Inc. in July 2014. The company was incorporated in 2012 and is based in San Diego, California.