Reviewing Turnstone Biologics (NASDAQ:TSBX) & Protalix BioTherapeutics (NYSE:PLX)

Turnstone Biologics (NASDAQ:TSBX) and Protalix BioTherapeutics (NYSE:PLX) are both small-cap medical companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their earnings, risk, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, dividends, valuation and profitability.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current recommendations for Turnstone Biologics and Protalix BioTherapeutics, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Turnstone Biologics	0	1	1	0	2.50
Protalix BioTherapeutics	0	0	1	0	3.00

Turnstone Biologics presently has a consensus price target of $2.13, indicating a potential upside of 302.46%. Protalix BioTherapeutics has a consensus price target of $10.00, indicating a potential upside of 843.40%. Given Protalix BioTherapeutics’ stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Protalix BioTherapeutics is more favorable than Turnstone Biologics.

Profitability

This table compares Turnstone Biologics and Protalix BioTherapeutics’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Turnstone Biologics	N/A	-85.18%	-72.25%
Protalix BioTherapeutics	-38.62%	-45.15%	-16.63%

Insider & Institutional Ownership

52.5% of Turnstone Biologics shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 16.5% of Protalix BioTherapeutics shares are held by institutional investors. 32.1% of Turnstone Biologics shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 6.3% of Protalix BioTherapeutics shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Turnstone Biologics and Protalix BioTherapeutics”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Turnstone Biologics	$19.31 million	0.63	-$55.20 million	($3.50)	-0.15
Protalix BioTherapeutics	$65.49 million	1.19	$8.31 million	($0.20)	-5.30

Protalix BioTherapeutics has higher revenue and earnings than Turnstone Biologics. Protalix BioTherapeutics is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Turnstone Biologics, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Volatility & Risk

Turnstone Biologics has a beta of 2.26, indicating that its share price is 126% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Protalix BioTherapeutics has a beta of 0.7, indicating that its share price is 30% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Protalix BioTherapeutics beats Turnstone Biologics on 8 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Turnstone Biologics

Turnstone Biologics Corp., a clinical stage biotechnology company, focuses on developing medicines to treat and cure patients with solid tumors. The company's lead product includes TIDAL-01 that is in Phase 1 clinical trials for the treatment of breast cancer, colorectal cancer, head and neck cancer and uveal melanoma, as well as an investigator sponsored trials to treat colorectal cancer, head and neck cancer, and cutaneous and non-cutaneous melanomas. It is also developing TIDAL-02, which is in preclinical development for the treatment of solid tumors. The company was founded in 2014 and is based in LA Jolla, California.

About Protalix BioTherapeutics

Protalix BioTherapeutics, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company, engages in the development, production, and commercialization of recombinant therapeutic proteins based on its proprietary ProCellEx plant cell-based protein expression system in the United States, Australia, Canada, Israel, Brazil, Russia, Turkey, and internationally. The company offers Elelyso for the treatment of Gaucher disease; and Elfabrio for the treatment of adult patients with a confirmed diagnosis of Fabry disease. It is also developing PRX-115, a plant cell-expressed recombinant PEGylated Uricase which is in Phase I trial for the treatment of gout; and PRX-119, a plant cell-expressed PEGylated recombinant human DNase I product candidate that is in preclinical phase for the treatment of NETs-related diseases. The company has agreements and partnerships with Pfizer; Fundação Oswaldo Cruz; and Chiesi Farmaceutici S.p.A. The company was incorporated in 1993 and is headquartered in Karmiel, Israel. Protalix BioTherapeutics, Inc. is a subsidiary of Protalix Ltd.