Critical Contrast: Replimune Group (NASDAQ:REPL) and Compass Therapeutics (NASDAQ:CMPX)

Replimune Group (NASDAQ:REPL) and Compass Therapeutics (NASDAQ:CMPX) are both small-cap medical companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, dividends, earnings, risk, valuation, profitability and analyst recommendations.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current ratings for Replimune Group and Compass Therapeutics, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Replimune Group	0	0	7	1	3.13
Compass Therapeutics	0	2	7	0	2.78

Replimune Group currently has a consensus target price of $19.43, indicating a potential upside of 60.30%. Compass Therapeutics has a consensus target price of $11.38, indicating a potential upside of 316.67%. Given Compass Therapeutics’ higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Compass Therapeutics is more favorable than Replimune Group.

Risk & Volatility

Replimune Group has a beta of 1.3, suggesting that its stock price is 30% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Compass Therapeutics has a beta of 1.17, suggesting that its stock price is 17% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Replimune Group and Compass Therapeutics”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Replimune Group	N/A	N/A	-$215.79 million	($3.07)	-3.95
Compass Therapeutics	$850,000.00	441.90	-$42.49 million	($0.37)	-7.38

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

Profitability

This table compares Replimune Group and Compass Therapeutics’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Replimune Group	N/A	-54.84%	-42.97%
Compass Therapeutics	N/A	-32.37%	-30.67%

Insider & Institutional Ownership

92.5% of Replimune Group shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 68.4% of Compass Therapeutics shares are owned by institutional investors. 8.8% of Replimune Group shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 28.5% of Compass Therapeutics shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Summary

Compass Therapeutics beats Replimune Group on 7 of the 12 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Replimune Group

Replimune Group, Inc., a clinical-stage biotechnology company, focuses on the development of oncolytic immunotherapies to treat cancer. The company's proprietary tumor-directed oncolytic immunotherapy product candidates are designed and intended to activate the immune system against cancer. Its lead product candidate is RP1, a selectively replicating version of HSV-1 that expresses GALV-GP R(-) and human GM-CSF, which is in Phase I/II clinical trials for a range of solid tumors; and that has completed Phase II clinical trials for treating cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma. The company is also developing RP2, which is in Phase I clinical trials to express an anti-CTLA-4 antibody-like protein to block the inhibition of the immune response otherwise caused by CTLA-4; and RP3 that is in Phase I clinical trial to express immune-activating proteins that stimulate T cells. Replimune Group, Inc. was founded in 2015 and is headquartered in Woburn, Massachusetts.

About Compass Therapeutics

Compass Therapeutics, Inc., a clinical-stage oncology-focused biopharmaceutical company, engages in developing antibody-based therapeutics to treat various human diseases in the United States. The company's lead product candidates include CTX-009, a bispecific antibody that blocks Delta-like ligand 4 a ligand of Notch-1, and vascular endothelial growth factor A signaling pathways, which are critical to angiogenesis and tumor vascularization; and CTX-471, an IgG4 monoclonal antibody that is an agonist of CD137, a key co-stimulatory receptor on immune cells. It also develops CTX-8371, a bispecific inhibitor that targets PD-1 and PD-L1 checkpoint inhibitor antibodies. The company was founded in 2014 and is headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts.