Financial Review: Acumen Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:ABOS) & Precision BioSciences (NASDAQ:DTIL)

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

Valuation and Earnings

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

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Precision BioSciences	$68.70 million	0.52	-$61.32 million	$1.90	2.47
Acumen Pharmaceuticals	N/A	N/A	-$52.37 million	($1.71)	-0.63

Acumen Pharmaceuticals has lower revenue, but higher earnings 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.

Volatility and Risk

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

Analyst Ratings

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

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

Precision BioSciences presently has a consensus price target of $37.67, suggesting a potential upside of 703.13%. Acumen Pharmaceuticals has a consensus price target of $7.33, suggesting a potential upside of 579.01%. Given Precision BioSciences’ higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Precision BioSciences is more favorable than Acumen Pharmaceuticals.

Profitability

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

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

Insider & Institutional Ownership

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

Summary

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

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.

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.