Reviewing Nuvation Bio (NYSE:NUVB) and Relay Therapeutics (NASDAQ:RLAY)

Relay Therapeutics (NASDAQ:RLAY) and Nuvation Bio (NYSE:NUVB) are both healthcare companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their dividends, valuation, risk, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, earnings and profitability.

Volatility & Risk

Relay Therapeutics has a beta of 1.74, meaning that its share price is 74% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Nuvation Bio has a beta of 1.73, meaning that its share price is 73% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Relay Therapeutics and Nuvation Bio”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Relay Therapeutics	$10.35 million	421.00	-$276.48 million	($1.51)	-13.06
Nuvation Bio	$62.90 million	24.03	-$204.63 million	($0.40)	-10.76

Nuvation Bio has higher revenue and earnings than Relay Therapeutics. Relay Therapeutics is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Nuvation Bio, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

This table compares Relay Therapeutics and Nuvation Bio’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Relay Therapeutics	N/A	-40.25%	-36.82%
Nuvation Bio	-67.38%	-45.69%	-18.54%

Insider & Institutional Ownership

97.0% of Relay Therapeutics shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 61.7% of Nuvation Bio shares are held by institutional investors. 5.0% of Relay Therapeutics shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 30.1% of Nuvation Bio shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and price targets for Relay Therapeutics and Nuvation Bio, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Relay Therapeutics	1	1	11	1	2.86
Nuvation Bio	1	2	9	0	2.67

Relay Therapeutics presently has a consensus price target of $27.00, indicating a potential upside of 36.92%. Nuvation Bio has a consensus price target of $12.89, indicating a potential upside of 199.39%. Given Nuvation Bio’s higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Nuvation Bio is more favorable than Relay Therapeutics.

Summary

Relay Therapeutics beats Nuvation Bio on 8 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Relay Therapeutics

Relay Therapeutics, Inc. is a clinical-stage biotechnology company focused on discovering and developing medicines for patients with serious diseases, with an emphasis on cancer. The company uses its computational drug discovery platform to study how proteins move and interact, aiming to identify drug targets and design therapies against them. Relay’s research combines experimental biology, structural biology and computational methods. Its drug development programs have included candidates targeting cancer-related pathways, such as FGFR2 and PI3Kα.

About Nuvation Bio

Nuvation Bio is a biopharmaceutical company focused on developing and commercializing treatments for cancer. Founded in 2018 by physician and biotechnology executive David Hung, the company is headquartered in New York and is led by Hung as founder and chief executive officer. Its commercial product, Ibtrozi (taletrectinib), is an oral targeted therapy approved in the United States for adults with ROS1-positive non-small cell lung cancer. Nuvation Bio also develops investigational oncology medicines, including therapies targeting specific genetic changes and other features of cancer.