NKGen Biotech (NYSE:NKGN) & Vaxart (NASDAQ:VXRT) Head-To-Head Comparison

Vaxart (NASDAQ:VXRT) and NKGen Biotech (NYSE:NKGN) are both small-cap medical companies, but which is the superior stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their profitability, institutional ownership, risk, valuation, analyst recommendations, dividends and earnings.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

18.0% of Vaxart shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 76.2% of NKGen Biotech shares are owned by institutional investors. 2.6% of Vaxart shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 10.4% of NKGen Biotech 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.

Volatility and Risk

Vaxart has a beta of 1.57, indicating that its share price is 57% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, NKGen Biotech has a beta of 0.84, indicating that its share price is 16% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Vaxart and NKGen Biotech’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Vaxart	-431.61%	-110.46%	-62.78%
NKGen Biotech	N/A	N/A	-479.36%

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations for Vaxart and NKGen Biotech, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Vaxart	0	0	2	0	3.00
NKGen Biotech	0	0	0	0	0.00

Vaxart currently has a consensus price target of $3.00, suggesting a potential upside of 791.53%. Given Vaxart’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities research analysts clearly believe Vaxart is more favorable than NKGen Biotech.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Vaxart and NKGen Biotech”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Vaxart	$28.70 million	2.67	-$82.46 million	($0.34)	-0.99
NKGen Biotech	$80,000.00	101.13	-$82.94 million	($2.45)	-0.07

Vaxart has higher revenue and earnings than NKGen Biotech. Vaxart is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than NKGen Biotech, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Summary

Vaxart beats NKGen Biotech on 8 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Vaxart

Vaxart, Inc., a clinical-stage biotechnology company, discovers and develops oral recombinant protein vaccines based on its proprietary oral vaccine platform. The company’s product pipeline includes norovirus vaccine, a bivalent oral tablet vaccine in Phase 2 clinical trial for the GI.1 and GII.4 norovirus strains; coronavirus vaccine, which is in Phase 2 clinical trial, for the treatment of SARS-CoV-2 infection; seasonal influenza vaccine, which is in Phase 2 clinical trial, to treat H1 influenza infection; and human papillomavirus therapeutic vaccine, which is in preclinical stage, that targets HPV-16 and HPV-18 for cervical cancers and precancerous cervical lesions. It has a license agreement with Altesa Biosciences, Inc. to develop and commercialize Vapendavir, a capsid-binding broad-spectrum antiviral. Vaxart, Inc. is headquartered in South San Francisco, California.

About NKGen Biotech

NKGen Biotech, Inc. operates as a clinical-stage biotechnology company that focuses on the development and commercialization of autologous, allogeneic, and CAR-NK natural killer cell therapies. It develops SNK01, an autologous NK cell therapy; and SNK02, an allogeneic NK cell therapy, which are in Phase 1 clinical trials. The company was founded in 2017 and is based in Santa Ana, California.