Head-To-Head Contrast: Nektar Therapeutics (NASDAQ:NKTR) vs. Aravive (NASDAQ:ARAV)

Nektar Therapeutics (NASDAQ:NKTR) and Aravive (NASDAQ:ARAV) are both medical companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their earnings, profitability, institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, valuation, dividends and risk.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and price targets for Nektar Therapeutics and Aravive, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Nektar Therapeutics	0	2	4	0	2.67
Aravive	0	0	0	0	0.00

Nektar Therapeutics currently has a consensus price target of $4.10, suggesting a potential upside of 305.94%. Given Nektar Therapeutics’ stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities analysts plainly believe Nektar Therapeutics is more favorable than Aravive.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Nektar Therapeutics and Aravive”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Nektar Therapeutics	$93.14 million	2.00	-$276.06 million	($0.84)	-1.20
Aravive	$9.14 million	0.32	-$76.32 million	($0.96)	-0.04

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

Institutional & Insider Ownership

75.9% of Nektar Therapeutics shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 35.8% of Aravive shares are owned by institutional investors. 3.7% of Nektar Therapeutics shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 60.4% of Aravive shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Profitability

This table compares Nektar Therapeutics and Aravive’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Nektar Therapeutics	-180.70%	-173.28%	-46.31%
Aravive	N/A	N/A	N/A

Summary

Nektar Therapeutics beats Aravive on 7 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Nektar Therapeutics

Nektar Therapeutics, a biopharmaceutical company, focuses on discovering and developing medicines in the field of immunotherapy in the United States and internationally. The company is developing rezpegaldesleukin, a cytokine Treg stimulant that is in phase 2 clinical trial for the treatment of systemic lupus erythematosus and ulcerative colitis, as well as phase 2b clinical trial to treat atopic dermatitis and psoriasis; and NKTR-255, an IL-15 receptor agonist, which is in phase 1 clinical trial to boost the immune system's natural ability to fight cancer. It has collaboration agreements with Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Ltd.; AstraZeneca AB; UCB Pharma S.A.; F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd; Bausch Health Companies Inc.; Pfizer Inc.; Amgen Inc.; UCB Pharma (Biogen); Bristol-Myers Squibb Company; Merck KGaA; and SFJ Pharmaceuticals, Inc. The company was incorporated in 1990 and is headquartered in San Francisco, California.

About Aravive

Aravive, Inc., a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, develops transformative treatments for life-threatening diseases, including cancer and fibrosis in the United States. Its lead product candidate is batiraxcept, an ultrahigh-affinity, decoy protein that targets the GAS6-AXL signaling pathway, which is in Phase III clinical trial for the treatment of platinum- resistant recurrent ovarian cancer; and in Phase Ib/II clinical trial for the treatment of clear cell renal cell carcinoma and pancreatic adenocarcinoma. The company also develops AVB-S6, a soluble Fc-fusion protein to block the activation of the GAS6-AXL signaling pathway. It has a license and collaboration agreement with WuXi Biologics (Hong Kong) Limited to identify and develop novel high-affinity bispecific antibodies targeting cancer and fibrosis; and license agreement with 3D Medicines Inc. to develop products that contain batiraxcept as the sole drug substance for the treatment of human oncological diseases in mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau. The company was formerly known as Versartis, Inc. and changed its name to Aravive, Inc. in October 2018. Aravive, Inc. was incorporated in 2008 and is headquartered in Houston, Texas.