Financial Comparison: Precision BioSciences (NASDAQ:DTIL) vs. Acumen Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:ABOS)

Acumen Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:ABOS) and Precision BioSciences (NASDAQ:DTIL) are both small-cap medical companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their profitability, dividends, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, valuation, risk and earnings.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent recommendations for Acumen Pharmaceuticals and Precision BioSciences, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Acumen Pharmaceuticals	0	0	2	1	3.33
Precision BioSciences	0	0	3	0	3.00

Acumen Pharmaceuticals currently has a consensus target price of $7.33, suggesting a potential upside of 566.67%. Precision BioSciences has a consensus target price of $37.67, suggesting a potential upside of 689.66%. Given Precision BioSciences’ higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Precision BioSciences is more favorable than Acumen Pharmaceuticals.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

71.0% of Acumen Pharmaceuticals shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 38.0% of Precision BioSciences shares are owned by institutional investors. 7.1% of Acumen Pharmaceuticals shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 4.0% of Precision BioSciences shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Profitability

This table compares Acumen Pharmaceuticals and Precision BioSciences’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Acumen Pharmaceuticals	N/A	-32.99%	-27.99%
Precision BioSciences	11.48%	-23.69%	-6.98%

Risk and Volatility

Acumen Pharmaceuticals has a beta of 0.02, indicating that its stock price is 98% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Precision BioSciences has a beta of 1.59, indicating that its stock price is 59% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Acumen Pharmaceuticals and Precision BioSciences”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Acumen Pharmaceuticals	N/A	N/A	-$52.37 million	($1.71)	-0.64
Precision BioSciences	$68.70 million	0.53	-$61.32 million	$1.90	2.51

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

Summary

Precision BioSciences beats Acumen Pharmaceuticals on 9 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Acumen Pharmaceuticals

Acumen Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, develops targeted therapies for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease. The company focuses on advancing a targeted immunotherapy drug candidate sabirnetug (ACU193), a recombinant humanized immunoglobulin gamma 2 that completed Phase I clinical trial to target soluble amyloid-beta oligomers. The company has a license agreement with Lonza Sales AG to manufacture and commercialize sabirnetug; and a collaboration and license agreement with Halozyme, Inc. for the development of a subcutaneous formulation of sabirnetug. Acumen Pharmaceuticals, Inc. was incorporated in 1996 and is headquartered in Charlottesville, Virginia.

About Precision BioSciences

Precision BioSciences, Inc., an advanced gene editing company, develops in vivo gene editing therapies for gene edits, including gene elimination, insertion, and excision in the United States. The company offers ARCUS, a genome editing platform to DNA genome insertion, deletion, and repair. It also provides PBGENE-HBV for the treatment of chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) to eliminate covalently closed circular DNA with direct cuts and edits as well as to inactivate integrated HBV DNA with the goal of long-lasting reductions in hepatitis B surface antigen; PBGENE-PMM for the treatment of m.3243 associated primary mitochondrial myopathy (PMM) which is expected to submit an IND and/or CTA. In addition, it develops PBGENE-NVS for sickle cell disease/beta thalassemia for insertion; PBGENE-DMD (excision) for duchenne muscular dystrophy; PBGENE-LL2 (insertion), a liver directed target; PBGENE-LL3, a central nervous system directed target; and iECURE-OTC (insertion) for ornithine transcarbamylase deficiency. The company has license and collaboration agreement with Caribou Biosciences, Inc.; license agreement with TG Cell Therapy, Inc. to develop, manufacture, and commercialize azer-cel for autoimmune diseases and other indications outside of cancer; development and license agreement with Eli Lilly and Company for the research and development of potential in vivo therapies for genetic disorders; Cellectis S.A.; iECURE, Inc. to develop ARCUS-based gene-insertion therapies; Duke University; and Novartis Pharma AG to discover and develop in vivo gene editing products. Precision BioSciences, Inc. was incorporated in 2006 and is headquartered in Durham, North Carolina.