Contrasting Scholar Rock (NASDAQ:SRRK) & Agenus (NASDAQ:AGEN)

Scholar Rock (NASDAQ:SRRK) and Agenus (NASDAQ:AGEN) are both small-cap medical companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their profitability, dividends, institutional ownership, risk, valuation, earnings and analyst recommendations.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent ratings and target prices for Scholar Rock and Agenus, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Scholar Rock	0	0	6	1	3.14
Agenus	0	5	1	0	2.17

Scholar Rock presently has a consensus target price of $26.43, suggesting a potential upside of 210.56%. Agenus has a consensus target price of $10.50, suggesting a potential upside of 87.17%. Given Scholar Rock’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, research analysts plainly believe Scholar Rock is more favorable than Agenus.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

91.1% of Scholar Rock shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 61.5% of Agenus shares are owned by institutional investors. 26.2% of Scholar Rock shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 4.6% of Agenus shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

This table compares Scholar Rock and Agenus’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Scholar Rock	N/A	-114.96%	-77.22%
Agenus	-144.94%	N/A	-77.23%

Volatility & Risk

Scholar Rock has a beta of 0.82, indicating that its share price is 18% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Agenus has a beta of 1.36, indicating that its share price is 36% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Scholar Rock and Agenus”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Scholar Rock	$33.19 million	20.26	-$165.79 million	($2.09)	-4.03
Agenus	$159.63 million	0.73	-$245.76 million	($12.84)	-0.43

Scholar Rock has higher earnings, but lower revenue than Agenus. Scholar Rock is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Agenus, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Summary

Scholar Rock beats Agenus on 11 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Scholar Rock

Scholar Rock Holding Corporation, a biopharmaceutical company, focuses on the discovery, development, and delivery of medicines for the treatment of serious diseases in which signaling by protein growth factors plays a fundamental role. The company develops Apitegromab, an inhibitor of the activation of myostatin that is in Phase 3 clinical trial for the treatment of spinal muscular atrophy; and SRK-181, which has completed Phase 1 clinical trials for the treatment of cancers that are resistant to checkpoint inhibitor therapies, such as anti-PD-1 or anti-PD-L1 antibody therapies. It is developing a pipeline of product candidates to deliver novel therapies to treat a range of serious diseases, including neuromuscular disorders, cardiometabolic disorders, cancer, fibrosis, and iron-restricted anemia. Scholar Rock Holding Corporation was founded in 2012 and is headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

About Agenus

Agenus Inc., a clinical-stage biotechnology company, discovers and develops immuno-oncology products in the United States and internationally. The company offers Retrocyte Display, an antibody expression platform for the identification of fully human and humanized monoclonal antibodies; and display technologies. It develops QS-21 Stimulon adjuvant, a saponin-based vaccine adjuvant. The company also develops Balstilimab, an anti-PD-1 antagonist that has completed Phase II clinical trial to treat second line cervical cancer; AGEN1181, an antigen 4 (CTLA-4) blocking antibody that is in Phase 2 clinical trial for the treatment of pancreatic cancer and and melanoma; AGEN2373, a CD137 monospecific antibody that is in Phase 1b clinical trial; AGEN1423, a CD73/TGFß TRAP antibody; AGEN1571, an ILT2 monospecific antibody that is in Phase 1 clinical trial; and BMS-986442, a TIGIT bispecific antibodies. In addition, it develops INCAGN1876, a GITR agonist; INCAGN2390, a TIM-3 monospecific antibody; INCAGN2385, a LAG-3 monospecific antibody; MK-4830, a monospecific antibody targeting ILT4 that is in Phase 2 clinical trial; UGN-301, a zalifrelimab intravesical solution for the treatment of cancers of the urinary tract that is in a Phase 1 clinical trial; and AGEN1884, a first-generation anti-CTLA-4 monospecific antibody. The company operates under Agenus, MiNK, Prophage, Retrocyte Display, and Stimulon trademarks. It has collaborations with Bristol-Myers Squibb Company, Betta Pharmaceuticals Co., Ltd., Incyte Corporation, Merck Sharpe & Dohme, and Gilead Sciences, Inc. The company was formerly known as Antigenics Inc. and changed its name to Agenus Inc. in January 2011. Agenus Inc. was founded in 1994 and is headquartered in Lexington, Massachusetts.