Reviewing Adaptive Biotechnologies (NASDAQ:ADPT) and Tarsus Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:TARS)

Adaptive Biotechnologies (NASDAQ:ADPT) and Tarsus Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:TARS) are both small-cap medical companies, but which is the superior stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their valuation, dividends, earnings, analyst recommendations, profitability, institutional ownership and risk.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent ratings and price targets for Adaptive Biotechnologies and Tarsus Pharmaceuticals, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Adaptive Biotechnologies	0	1	3	0	2.75
Tarsus Pharmaceuticals	0	1	5	1	3.00

Adaptive Biotechnologies presently has a consensus target price of $6.50, suggesting a potential upside of 47.75%. Tarsus Pharmaceuticals has a consensus target price of $54.20, suggesting a potential upside of 16.81%. Given Adaptive Biotechnologies’ higher probable upside, research analysts clearly believe Adaptive Biotechnologies is more favorable than Tarsus Pharmaceuticals.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

99.2% of Adaptive Biotechnologies shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 90.0% of Tarsus Pharmaceuticals shares are held by institutional investors. 6.2% of Adaptive Biotechnologies shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 8.3% of Tarsus Pharmaceuticals shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Volatility and Risk

Adaptive Biotechnologies has a beta of 1.45, indicating that its stock price is 45% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Tarsus Pharmaceuticals has a beta of 1, indicating that its stock price has a similar volatility profile to the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Adaptive Biotechnologies and Tarsus Pharmaceuticals’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Adaptive Biotechnologies	-110.13%	-62.06%	-26.82%
Tarsus Pharmaceuticals	-103.64%	-55.86%	-39.28%

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Adaptive Biotechnologies and Tarsus Pharmaceuticals”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Adaptive Biotechnologies	$170.28 million	3.81	-$225.25 million	($1.34)	-3.28
Tarsus Pharmaceuticals	$17.45 million	101.65	-$135.89 million	($3.81)	-12.18

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

Summary

Tarsus Pharmaceuticals beats Adaptive Biotechnologies on 8 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Adaptive Biotechnologies

Adaptive Biotechnologies Corporation, a commercial-stage company, develops an immune medicine platform for the diagnosis and treatment of various diseases. The company offers immunosequencing platform which combines a suite of proprietary chemistry, computational biology, and machine learning to generate clinical immunomics data to decode the adaptive immune system. It also provides clonoSEQ diagnostic test which detects and monitors the remaining number of cancer cells that are present in a patient’s body during and after treatment, known as Minimal Residual Disease (MRD). The company offers products and services for life sciences research, clinical diagnostics, and drug discovery applications. Adaptive Biotechnologies Corporation has strategic collaborations with Genentech, Inc. for the development, manufacture, and commercialization of neoantigen directed T cell therapies for the treatment of a range of cancers; and Microsoft Corporation to develop diagnostic tests for the early detection of various diseases from a single blood test. The company was formerly known as Adaptive TCR Corporation and changed its name to Adaptive Biotechnologies Corporation in December 2011. Adaptive Biotechnologies Corporation was incorporated in 2009 and is headquartered in Seattle, Washington.

About Tarsus Pharmaceuticals

Tarsus Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a commercial stage biopharmaceutical company, focuses on the development and commercialization of novel therapeutic candidates for eye care in the United States. The company's lead product candidate is XDEMVY, a novel therapeutic for the treatment of blepharitis caused by the infestation of Demodex mites, as well as to treat meibomian gland disease. It is developing TP-04 for the treatment of rosacea; and TP-05 for Lyme prophylaxis and community malaria reduction. In addition, the company develops lotilaner to address diseases across therapeutic categories in human medicine, including eye care, dermatology, and other infectious disease prevention. Tarsus Pharmaceuticals, Inc. was incorporated in 2016 and is headquartered in Irvine, California.