Analyzing Lipella Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:LIPO) and IDEAYA Biosciences (NASDAQ:IDYA)

Lipella Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:LIPO) and IDEAYA Biosciences (NASDAQ:IDYA) are both small-cap medical companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their dividends, institutional ownership, valuation, risk, analyst recommendations, earnings and profitability.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

74.3% of Lipella Pharmaceuticals shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 98.3% of IDEAYA Biosciences shares are held by institutional investors. 32.1% of Lipella Pharmaceuticals shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 3.5% of IDEAYA Biosciences 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.

Profitability

This table compares Lipella Pharmaceuticals and IDEAYA Biosciences’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Lipella Pharmaceuticals	-882.82%	-192.33%	-154.24%
IDEAYA Biosciences	N/A	-19.42%	-18.63%

Volatility and Risk

Lipella Pharmaceuticals has a beta of 0.28, meaning that its share price is 72% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, IDEAYA Biosciences has a beta of 0.82, meaning that its share price is 18% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent ratings for Lipella Pharmaceuticals and IDEAYA Biosciences, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Lipella Pharmaceuticals	0	0	1	0	3.00
IDEAYA Biosciences	0	2	13	1	2.94

Lipella Pharmaceuticals presently has a consensus price target of $16.00, indicating a potential upside of 312.37%. IDEAYA Biosciences has a consensus price target of $53.58, indicating a potential upside of 155.16%. Given Lipella Pharmaceuticals’ stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Lipella Pharmaceuticals is more favorable than IDEAYA Biosciences.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Lipella Pharmaceuticals and IDEAYA Biosciences”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Lipella Pharmaceuticals	$450,000.00	10.43	-$4.62 million	($4.25)	-0.91
IDEAYA Biosciences	$23.39 million	77.60	-$112.96 million	($2.33)	-9.01

Lipella Pharmaceuticals has higher earnings, but lower revenue than IDEAYA Biosciences. IDEAYA Biosciences is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Lipella Pharmaceuticals, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Summary

IDEAYA Biosciences beats Lipella Pharmaceuticals on 10 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Lipella Pharmaceuticals

Lipella Pharmaceuticals Inc., a biotechnology company, focuses on developing drugs by reformulating the active agents in existing generic drugs and optimizing these reformulations for various applications. The company develops LP-10, a formulation of tacrolimus that has completed Phase 2a clinical trial for patients with radiation-induced hemorrhagic cystitis; LP-310, a formulation of tacrolimus for the treatment of oral lichen planus; and LP-410, an oral liposomal formulation of tacrolimus for the treatment of oral graft-versus-host disease (GVHD). Lipella Pharmaceuticals Inc. was incorporated in 2005 and is headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

About IDEAYA Biosciences

IDEAYA Biosciences, Inc., a synthetic lethality-focused precision medicine oncology company, discovers and develops targeted therapeutics for patient populations selected using molecular diagnostics in the United States. The company's products in development include IDE196, a protein kinase C inhibitor that is in Phase 2/3 clinical trials for genetically defined cancers having GNAQ or GNA11 gene mutations; IDE397, a methionine adenosyltransferase 2a inhibitor that is in Phase 1/2 clinical trials for patients with solid tumors having methylthioadenosine phosphorylase gene deletions, such as non-small cell lung, bladder, gastric, and esophageal cancers; IDE161, a poly ADP-ribose glycohydrolase inhibitor that is in Phase 1 clinical trial to treat tumors with homologous recombination deficiency (HRD), and other genetic or molecular signatures; GSK101, a Pol Theta Helicase inhibitor that is in Phase 1 clinical trial for the treatment of tumors with BRCA or other homologous recombination, and HRD mutations; and Werner Helicase inhibitors for tumors with high microsatellite instability. It offers preclinical research programs focused on pharmacological inhibition; DECIPHER dual CRISPR library for synthetic lethality target and biomarker discovery; and INQUIRE chemical library and HARMONY machine-learning engines to enhance its drug discovery platform. The company has strategic alliances with GlaxoSmithKline, Pfizer Inc., Novartis International Pharmaceuticals Ltd., Amgen Inc., Gilead Sciences, Inc., Cancer Research UK, and the University of Manchester. IDEAYA Biosciences, Inc. was incorporated in 2015 and is headquartered in South San Francisco, California.