Head to Head Review: Phathom Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:PHAT) & Traws Pharma (NASDAQ:TRAW)

Phathom Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:PHAT) and Traws Pharma (NASDAQ:TRAW) are both small-cap healthcare companies, but which is the better business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their earnings, institutional ownership, dividends, risk, profitability, analyst recommendations and valuation.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent ratings for Phathom Pharmaceuticals and Traws Pharma, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Phathom Pharmaceuticals	1	1	6	1	2.78
Traws Pharma	1	4	0	0	1.80

Phathom Pharmaceuticals presently has a consensus price target of $21.25, indicating a potential upside of 207.08%. Traws Pharma has a consensus price target of $1.00, indicating a potential upside of 75.90%. Given Phathom Pharmaceuticals’ stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities analysts clearly believe Phathom Pharmaceuticals is more favorable than Traws Pharma.

Volatility and Risk

Phathom Pharmaceuticals has a beta of 0.5, meaning that its stock price is 50% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Traws Pharma has a beta of 1.52, meaning that its stock price is 52% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

99.0% of Phathom Pharmaceuticals shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 7.9% of Traws Pharma shares are owned by institutional investors. 9.3% of Phathom Pharmaceuticals shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 7.6% of Traws Pharma shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Profitability

This table compares Phathom Pharmaceuticals and Traws Pharma’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Phathom Pharmaceuticals	-41.34%	N/A	-20.81%
Traws Pharma	N/A	-23,868.92%	-165.52%

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Phathom Pharmaceuticals and Traws Pharma”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Phathom Pharmaceuticals	$239.66 million	2.34	-$221.25 million	($1.28)	-5.41
Traws Pharma	N/A	N/A	$9.17 million	($1.74)	-0.33

Traws Pharma has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Phathom Pharmaceuticals. Phathom Pharmaceuticals is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Traws Pharma, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Summary

Phathom Pharmaceuticals beats Traws Pharma on 10 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Phathom Pharmaceuticals

Phathom Pharmaceuticals, Inc., biopharmaceutical company, focuses on developing and commercializing treatments for gastrointestinal diseases. The company has the rights in the United States, Europe, and Canada for an investigational potassium-competitive acid blocker (P-CAB) that blocks acid secretion in the stomach. It is also developing vonoprazan for the treatment of erosive gastroesophageal reflux disease; and in combination with antibiotics for the treatment of Helicobacter pylori infection. The company was incorporated in 2018 and is headquartered in Florham Park, New Jersey.

About Traws Pharma

Traws Pharma, Inc., a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company, focuses on developing small molecule oral product candidates for respiratory viral diseases and cancer. The company is developing investigational novel therapies for influenza and COVID19 that are designed to address treatment resistance, such as TRX01 (travatrelvir), a Mpro/3CL inhibitor in development for the treatment of COVID19; and TRX100 (viroxavir), an endonuclease inhibitor in development for the treatment of pandemic influenza. It is also developing narazaciclib, a multi-kinase CDK4/6 inhibitor, which is in Phase 1/2 clinical trials in patients with cancer, with or without co-administration of letrozole to define the recommended phase 2 dose for further development in endometrial cancer; and oral rigosertib, which is administered alone or in combination for investigation in various cancers. The company was formerly known as Onconova Therapeutics, Inc. and changed its name to Traws Pharma, Inc. in April 2024. Traws Pharma, Inc. was incorporated in 1998 and is headquartered in Newtown, Pennsylvania.