Head to Head Analysis: CG Oncology (NASDAQ:CGON) versus LENZ Therapeutics (NASDAQ:LENZ)

CG Oncology (NASDAQ:CGON) and LENZ Therapeutics (NASDAQ:LENZ) are both small-cap medical companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, valuation, profitability, risk, dividends and earnings.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and recommmendations for CG Oncology and LENZ Therapeutics, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
CG Oncology	0	0	8	1	3.11
LENZ Therapeutics	0	0	6	1	3.14

CG Oncology presently has a consensus target price of $63.88, suggesting a potential upside of 122.10%. LENZ Therapeutics has a consensus target price of $35.40, suggesting a potential upside of 14.30%. Given CG Oncology’s higher possible upside, research analysts clearly believe CG Oncology is more favorable than LENZ Therapeutics.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

26.6% of CG Oncology shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 54.3% of LENZ Therapeutics shares are owned by institutional investors. 38.4% of LENZ Therapeutics shares are owned 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.

Profitability

This table compares CG Oncology and LENZ Therapeutics’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
CG Oncology	-10,642.98%	-18.97%	-15.36%
LENZ Therapeutics	N/A	-58.48%	-55.50%

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares CG Oncology and LENZ Therapeutics”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
CG Oncology	$684,000.00	2,843.62	-$48.61 million	N/A	N/A
LENZ Therapeutics	N/A	N/A	-$124.65 million	N/A	N/A

CG Oncology has higher revenue and earnings than LENZ Therapeutics.

Summary

CG Oncology beats LENZ Therapeutics on 6 of the 10 factors compared between the two stocks.

About CG Oncology

CG Oncology, Inc., an oncolytic immunotherapy company, focuses on developing and commercializing backbone bladder-sparing therapeutics for patients with bladder cancer. The company develops BOND-003 for the treatment of high-risk bacillus calmette guerin (BCG)-unresponsive non-muscle invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC) patients; CORE-001 to treat cretostimogene in combination with pembrolizumab in high-risk BCG-unresponsive NMIBC patients; and CORE-002 for the treatment of cretostimogene in combination with the checkpoint inhibitor nivolumab in muscle invasive bladder cancer patients. It also develops PIVOT-006, a cretostimogene monotherapy for intermediate-risk NMIBC following transurethral resection of the bladder tumor; and CORE-008 for treating patients with high-risk NMIBC, including BCG-exposed and BCG-naïve NMIBC patients. CG Oncology, Inc. was formerly known as Cold Genesys, Inc. and changed its name to CG Oncology, Inc. in June 2020. The company was founded in 2010 and is based in Irvine, California.

About LENZ Therapeutics

LENZ Therapeutics, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company, focuses on developing and commercializing therapies to improve vision in the United States. Its product candidates include LNZ100 and LNZ101 which are in Phase III clinical trials for the treatment of presbyopia. The company is headquartered in Del Mar, California.