Reviewing Whitehawk Therapeutics (NASDAQ:WHWK) and Vaccinex (NASDAQ:VCNX)

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

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Vaccinex and Whitehawk Therapeutics”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Vaccinex	$388,000.00	4.76	-$20.25 million	($48.27)	-0.01
Whitehawk Therapeutics	$25.98 million	4.81	-$63.69 million	$0.14	18.93

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

Profitability

This table compares Vaccinex and Whitehawk Therapeutics’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Vaccinex	N/A	N/A	-383.58%
Whitehawk Therapeutics	99.42%	-68.32%	-63.21%

Risk and Volatility

Vaccinex has a beta of 1.1, meaning that its share price is 10% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Whitehawk Therapeutics has a beta of 0.38, meaning that its share price is 62% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current ratings for Vaccinex and Whitehawk Therapeutics, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Vaccinex	0	0	0	0	0.00
Whitehawk Therapeutics	1	1	1	0	2.00

Whitehawk Therapeutics has a consensus target price of $7.00, indicating a potential upside of 164.15%. Given Whitehawk Therapeutics’ stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Whitehawk Therapeutics is more favorable than Vaccinex.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

50.1% of Vaccinex shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 52.1% of Whitehawk Therapeutics shares are owned by institutional investors. 51.5% of Vaccinex shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 49.9% of Whitehawk Therapeutics shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Summary

Whitehawk Therapeutics beats Vaccinex on 10 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Vaccinex

Vaccinex, Inc., a clinical-stage biotechnology company, engages in the discovery and development of targeted biotherapeutics to treat cancer, neurodegenerative diseases, and autoimmune disorders. The company's lead drug candidate, pepinemab, a humanized monoclonal antibody that binds and blocks the activity of SEMA4D. It is developing Pepinemab, which is in phase 2 study for treatment of Alzheimer's disease and has completed phase 2 study for treatment of Huntington's disease; Pepinemab in combination with Pembrolizumab in phase 2 study for head and neck cancer, Avelumab in phase 2 study for pancreatic cancer, and completed phase 2 study with Avelumab for non-small cell lung cancer; and Pepinemab in combination with Nivolumab completed phase 2 study for melanoma, and trastuzumab and DC vaccine in phase 2 study for breast cancer. The company has also developed ActivMAb, an antibody drug discovery platform based on a novel method for complex targets, such as multi-pass membrane receptors or large and diverse libraries of full-length human monoclonal antibodies on the surface of pox viruses. It has collaborations with Merck Sharp & Dohme; Ares Trading S.A.; The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia; Emory University; Huntington Study Group; H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute, Inc; Catalent Pharma Solutions, LLC; Surface Oncology, Inc.; and Pharmaceutical and Biotech Co. The company was incorporated in 2001 and is headquartered in Rochester, New York.

About Whitehawk Therapeutics

Aadi Bioscience, Inc., a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, engages in developing and commercializing precision therapies for genetically defined cancers with alterations in mTOR pathway genes. Its lead drug candidate, FYARRO is a form of sirolimus bound to albumin. Aadi is evaluating FYARRO in cancers with known mTOR pathway activation, including tumor agnostic indications targeting specific genomic alterations that activate the mTOR pathway. The company was incorporated in 2007 and is headquartered in Pacific Palisades, California.