Critical Comparison: ProKidney (NASDAQ:PROK) & TScan Therapeutics (NASDAQ:TCRX)

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

Profitability

This table compares TScan Therapeutics and ProKidney’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
TScan Therapeutics	-855.84%	-59.83%	-35.42%
ProKidney	N/A	N/A	-8.80%

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current recommendations and price targets for TScan Therapeutics and ProKidney, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
TScan Therapeutics	0	0	5	0	3.00
ProKidney	0	3	2	0	2.40

TScan Therapeutics currently has a consensus price target of $12.00, suggesting a potential upside of 128.57%. ProKidney has a consensus price target of $4.50, suggesting a potential upside of 144.59%. Given ProKidney’s higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe ProKidney is more favorable than TScan Therapeutics.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares TScan Therapeutics and ProKidney”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
TScan Therapeutics	$12.20 million	22.40	-$89.22 million	($1.28)	-4.04
ProKidney	N/A	N/A	-$35.47 million	($0.57)	-3.22

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

Risk & Volatility

TScan Therapeutics has a beta of 0.77, suggesting that its share price is 23% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, ProKidney has a beta of 1.08, suggesting that its share price is 8% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

82.8% of TScan Therapeutics shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 51.6% of ProKidney shares are owned by institutional investors. 2.8% of TScan Therapeutics shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 41.5% of ProKidney shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Summary

ProKidney beats TScan Therapeutics on 9 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

About TScan Therapeutics

TScan Therapeutics, Inc., a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, develops T cell receptor-engineered T cell (TCR-T) therapies for the treatment of patients with cancer in the United States. The company's lead product candidates include TSC-100 and TSC-101 that is in Phase I clinical trial for the treatment of patients with hematologic malignancies to eliminate residual disease and prevent relapse after allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation. It also develops TSC-200, TSC-201, TSC-203, and TSC-204, which are in Phase 1 clinical trial, for the treatment of solid tumors; and TSC-202 to treat solid tumors. In addition, the company develops vaccines for infectious diseases, such as SARS-CoV-2. It has collaborations with Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research, Inc. To discover and develop novel TCR-T therapies; and Amgen Inc. to identify antigens recognized by T cells in patients with Crohn's disease using TargetScan, a proprietary target discovery platform. TScan Therapeutics, Inc. was incorporated in 2018 and is headquartered in Waltham, Massachusetts.

About ProKidney

ProKidney Corp., a clinical-stage biotechnology company, provides transformative proprietary cell therapy platform for treating various chronic kidney diseases in the United States. The company's lead product is Renal Autologous Cell Therapy (REACT), an autologous homologous cell admixture, which has completed Phase I clinical trial for REACT in patients with congenital anomalies of the Kidney and Urinary Tract (CAKUT), as well as in Phase III and Phase II clinical trials for the treatment of moderate to severe diabetic kidney disease. ProKidney Corp. founded in 2015 and is headquartered in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.