Comparing Adaptive Biotechnologies (NASDAQ:ADPT) & Ginkgo Bioworks (NYSE:DNA)

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

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent ratings and recommmendations for Adaptive Biotechnologies and Ginkgo Bioworks, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Adaptive Biotechnologies	0	1	3	0	2.75
Ginkgo Bioworks	3	1	1	0	1.60

Adaptive Biotechnologies currently has a consensus target price of $6.50, suggesting a potential upside of 38.89%. Ginkgo Bioworks has a consensus target price of $4.58, suggesting a potential downside of 27.73%. Given Adaptive Biotechnologies’ stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, research analysts clearly believe Adaptive Biotechnologies is more favorable than Ginkgo Bioworks.

Profitability

This table compares Adaptive Biotechnologies and Ginkgo Bioworks’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Adaptive Biotechnologies	-110.13%	-62.06%	-26.82%
Ginkgo Bioworks	-298.78%	-58.54%	-34.24%

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Adaptive Biotechnologies and Ginkgo Bioworks”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Adaptive Biotechnologies	$177.28 million	3.90	-$225.25 million	($1.34)	-3.49
Ginkgo Bioworks	$251.46 million	1.40	-$892.87 million	($13.08)	-0.48

Adaptive Biotechnologies has higher earnings, but lower revenue than Ginkgo Bioworks. Adaptive Biotechnologies 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

Adaptive Biotechnologies has a beta of 1.45, indicating that its stock price is 45% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Ginkgo Bioworks has a beta of 1.09, indicating that its stock price is 9% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

99.2% of Adaptive Biotechnologies shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 78.6% of Ginkgo Bioworks shares are held by institutional investors. 6.2% of Adaptive Biotechnologies shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 9.7% of Ginkgo Bioworks shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Summary

Adaptive Biotechnologies beats Ginkgo Bioworks on 10 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Adaptive Biotechnologies

Adaptive Biotechnologies Corporation, a commercial-stage company, develops an immune medicine platform for the diagnosis and treatment of various diseases. The company offers immunosequencing platform which combines a suite of proprietary chemistry, computational biology, and machine learning to generate clinical immunomics data to decode the adaptive immune system. It also provides clonoSEQ diagnostic test which detects and monitors the remaining number of cancer cells that are present in a patient’s body during and after treatment, known as Minimal Residual Disease (MRD). The company offers products and services for life sciences research, clinical diagnostics, and drug discovery applications. Adaptive Biotechnologies Corporation has strategic collaborations with Genentech, Inc. for the development, manufacture, and commercialization of neoantigen directed T cell therapies for the treatment of a range of cancers; and Microsoft Corporation to develop diagnostic tests for the early detection of various diseases from a single blood test. The company was formerly known as Adaptive TCR Corporation and changed its name to Adaptive Biotechnologies Corporation in December 2011. Adaptive Biotechnologies Corporation was incorporated in 2009 and is headquartered in Seattle, Washington.

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.