Reviewing NKGen Biotech (NYSE:NKGN) & HilleVax (NASDAQ:HLVX)

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

Insider & Institutional Ownership

76.2% of NKGen Biotech shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 86.4% of HilleVax shares are owned by institutional investors. 74.7% of NKGen Biotech shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 71.1% of HilleVax shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Valuation and Earnings

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

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
NKGen Biotech	$80,000.00	222.21	-$82.94 million	($5.08)	-0.10
HilleVax	N/A	N/A	-$123.57 million	($3.10)	-0.62

NKGen Biotech has higher revenue and earnings than HilleVax. HilleVax 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 NKGen Biotech and HilleVax’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
NKGen Biotech	N/A	N/A	-479.36%
HilleVax	N/A	-67.27%	-51.99%

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and recommmendations for NKGen Biotech and HilleVax, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
NKGen Biotech	0	0	0	0	0.00
HilleVax	0	6	0	0	2.00

HilleVax has a consensus target price of $3.00, indicating a potential upside of 56.25%. Given HilleVax’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe HilleVax is more favorable than NKGen Biotech.

Risk & Volatility

NKGen Biotech has a beta of 0.77, meaning that its stock price is 23% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, HilleVax has a beta of 0.81, meaning that its stock price is 19% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

HilleVax beats NKGen Biotech on 6 of the 11 factors compared between the two stocks.

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.

About HilleVax

HilleVax, Inc., a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, focuses on developing and commercializing novel vaccines in the United States. It develops HIL-214, a virus-like particle-based vaccine candidate for the prevention of moderate-to-severe acute gastroenteritis caused by norovirus infection. The company was formerly known as MokshaCo, Inc. and changed its name to HilleVax, Inc. in February 2021. HilleVax, Inc. was founded in 2019 and is headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts.