Financial Contrast: Kezar Life Sciences (NASDAQ:KZR) vs. Purple Biotech (NASDAQ:PPBT)

Kezar Life Sciences (NASDAQ:KZR) and Purple Biotech (NASDAQ:PPBT) are both small-cap medical companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, risk, valuation, earnings, dividends and profitability.

Profitability

This table compares Kezar Life Sciences and Purple Biotech’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Kezar Life Sciences	N/A	-47.28%	-40.79%
Purple Biotech	N/A	-62.26%	-51.53%

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Kezar Life Sciences and Purple Biotech’s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Kezar Life Sciences	$7.00 million	6.76	-$101.87 million	($1.40)	-0.46
Purple Biotech	N/A	N/A	-$19.88 million	($0.81)	-0.63

Purple Biotech has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Kezar Life Sciences. Purple Biotech is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Kezar Life Sciences, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

67.9% of Kezar Life Sciences shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 9.6% of Purple Biotech shares are held by institutional investors. 9.3% of Kezar Life Sciences shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 3.0% of Purple Biotech shares are held by company 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.

Volatility and Risk

Kezar Life Sciences has a beta of 0.23, meaning that its share price is 77% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Purple Biotech has a beta of 1.1, meaning that its share price is 10% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent ratings for Kezar Life Sciences and Purple Biotech, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Kezar Life Sciences	0	2	1	0	2.33
Purple Biotech	0	0	3	0	3.00

Kezar Life Sciences presently has a consensus price target of $11.00, suggesting a potential upside of 1,592.31%. Purple Biotech has a consensus price target of $9.00, suggesting a potential upside of 1,667.83%. Given Purple Biotech’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Purple Biotech is more favorable than Kezar Life Sciences.

About Kezar Life Sciences

Kezar Life Sciences, Inc., a clinical-stage biotechnology company, engages in the discovery and development of novel small molecule therapeutics to treat unmet needs in immune-mediated diseases and cancer in the United States. The company's lead product candidate is zetomipzomib (KZR-616), a selective immunoproteasome inhibitor that is in Phase 2b clinical trials for various indications, including lupus nephritis, dermatomyositis, and polymyositis; Phase 1b clinical trials in systemic lupus erythematosus; and completed Phase 2a clinical trials in lupus nephritis. Its preclinical products include KZR-261, a novel first-in-class protein secretion inhibitor for the treatment of tumors resistant to traditional chemotherapeutics. Kezar Life Sciences, Inc. was incorporated in 2015 and is headquartered in South San Francisco, California.

About Purple Biotech

Purple Biotech Ltd., a clinical-stage company, focuses on developing therapies to overcome tumor immune evasion and drug resistance for cancer patients in the United States. Its oncology pipeline includes CM24, a humanized monoclonal antibody that blocks the interactions of carcinoembryonic antigen related cell adhesion molecule 1 as a combination therapy with anti-PD-1 checkpoint inhibitors, which is in Phase 2 clinical trial for the treatment of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma; NT219, a small molecule that targets and inhibits insulin receptor substrate 1 and 2, and signal transducer and activator of transcription, which is in Phase 1/2 clinical trials for the treatment recurrent and/or metastatic squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck cancer or colorectal adenocarcinoma; and IM1240, a multi-valent antibody designed to activate anti-tumoral immune response against 5T4-positive tumors, which is in preclinical stage. The company has collaboration agreement with Bristol Myers Squibb Company to evaluate the combination of CM24 with the PD-1 inhibitor nivolumab in addition to chemotherapy. The company was formerly known as Kitov Pharma Ltd and changed its name to Purple Biotech Ltd. in December 2020. The company is headquartered in Rehovot, Israel.