Reviewing ProKidney (NASDAQ:PROK) and NKGen Biotech (NYSE:NKGN)

ProKidney (NASDAQ:PROK) and NKGen Biotech (NYSE:NKGN) are both small-cap medical companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their valuation, dividends, profitability, risk, earnings, analyst recommendations and institutional ownership.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

51.6% of ProKidney shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 76.2% of NKGen Biotech shares are held by institutional investors. 41.5% of ProKidney shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 74.7% of NKGen Biotech shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Risk & Volatility

ProKidney has a beta of 1.27, suggesting that its stock price is 27% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, NKGen Biotech has a beta of 0.77, suggesting that its stock price is 23% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares ProKidney and NKGen Biotech”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
ProKidney	N/A	N/A	-$35.47 million	($0.55)	-3.53
NKGen Biotech	$80,000.00	215.25	-$82.94 million	($5.08)	-0.10

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

Profitability

This table compares ProKidney and NKGen Biotech’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
ProKidney	N/A	N/A	-10.24%
NKGen Biotech	N/A	N/A	-479.36%

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current recommendations and price targets for ProKidney and NKGen Biotech, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
ProKidney	0	3	2	0	2.40
NKGen Biotech	0	0	0	0	0.00

ProKidney currently has a consensus target price of $4.50, indicating a potential upside of 131.96%. Given ProKidney’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe ProKidney is more favorable than NKGen Biotech.

Summary

ProKidney beats NKGen Biotech on 7 of the 11 factors compared between the two stocks.

About ProKidney

ProKidney Corp., a clinical-stage biotechnology company, provides transformative proprietary cell therapy platform for treating various chronic kidney diseases in the United States. The company's lead product is Renal Autologous Cell Therapy (REACT), an autologous homologous cell admixture, which has completed Phase I clinical trial for REACT in patients with congenital anomalies of the Kidney and Urinary Tract (CAKUT), as well as in Phase III and Phase II clinical trials for the treatment of moderate to severe diabetic kidney disease. ProKidney Corp. founded in 2015 and is headquartered in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

About NKGen Biotech

NKGen Biotech, Inc. operates as a clinical-stage biotechnology company that focuses on the development and commercialization of autologous, allogeneic, and CAR-NK natural killer cell therapies. It develops SNK01, an autologous NK cell therapy; and SNK02, an allogeneic NK cell therapy, which are in Phase 1 clinical trials. The company was founded in 2017 and is based in Santa Ana, California.