Head to Head Review: Atara Biotherapeutics (NASDAQ:ATRA) vs. Palisade Bio (NASDAQ:PALI)

Atara Biotherapeutics (NASDAQ:ATRA) and Palisade Bio (NASDAQ:PALI) are both small-cap medical companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their risk, institutional ownership, profitability, earnings, valuation, analyst recommendations and dividends.

Volatility & Risk

Atara Biotherapeutics has a beta of 0.54, suggesting that its share price is 46% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Palisade Bio has a beta of 1.24, suggesting that its share price is 24% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Atara Biotherapeutics and Palisade Bio’s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Atara Biotherapeutics	$8.57 million	4.63	-$276.13 million	($53.25)	-0.15
Palisade Bio	$250,000.00	18.09	-$12.30 million	($23.63)	-0.20

Palisade Bio has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Atara Biotherapeutics. Palisade Bio is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Atara Biotherapeutics, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

70.9% of Atara Biotherapeutics shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 11.8% of Palisade Bio shares are owned by institutional investors. 3.7% of Atara Biotherapeutics shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 3.3% of Palisade Bio shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

This table compares Atara Biotherapeutics and Palisade Bio’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Atara Biotherapeutics	-671.70%	-783.31%	-121.73%
Palisade Bio	N/A	-105.39%	-87.03%

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and recommmendations for Atara Biotherapeutics and Palisade Bio, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Atara Biotherapeutics	0	3	0	0	2.00
Palisade Bio	0	0	1	0	3.00

Atara Biotherapeutics presently has a consensus target price of $700.00, indicating a potential upside of 8,405.47%. Palisade Bio has a consensus target price of $22.50, indicating a potential upside of 367.78%. Given Atara Biotherapeutics’ higher probable upside, equities analysts plainly believe Atara Biotherapeutics is more favorable than Palisade Bio.

Summary

Palisade Bio beats Atara Biotherapeutics on 9 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Atara Biotherapeutics

Atara Biotherapeutics, Inc. develops therapies for patients with solid tumors, hematologic cancers, and autoimmune diseases in the United States. Its lead product includes Tab-cel (tabelecleucel), a T-cell immunotherapy program that is in Phase 3 clinical trials for the treatment of epstein-barr virus (EBV) driven post-transplant lymphoproliferative disease, as well as nasopharyngeal carcinoma. Its CAR T immunotherapy pipeline products include ATA2271 and ATA3271 to treat mesothelin; and ATA3219 for the treatment of B-cell malignancies, as well as ATA188 that is in Phase 2 clinical trials to treat multiple sclerosis. Atara Biotherapeutics, Inc. has a license agreement with Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center; license, and research and development collaboration agreement with QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute; and strategic collaboration with H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center. The company was incorporated in 2012 and is headquartered in Thousand Oaks, California.

About Palisade Bio

Palisade Bio, Inc., a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, focuses on focuses on developing therapeutics that protect the integrity of the intestinal barrier in the United States. The company's lead therapeutic candidate is PALI-2108, a prodrug PDE4 inhibitor, currently under pre-clinical development as a therapeutic for patients living with inflammatory bowel diseases, including ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease (CD), as well as develops PALI-1908, an oral, selective PDE4 inhibitor prodrug that is locally bioactivated in the terminal ileum of CD patients, currently in the research stage. It has a research collaboration and license agreement with Giiant Pharma, Inc. for the development, manufacture, and commercialization of its compounds; a license agreement with the Regents of the University of California; a co-development and distribution agreement with Newsoara Biopharma Co., Ltd; and a transformative strategic collaboration with Strand Life Sciences for advancing precision medicine for ulcerative colitis therapy. The company is based in Carlsbad, California.