Critical Review: Iovance Biotherapeutics (NASDAQ:IOVA) and Prothena (NASDAQ:PRTA)

Iovance Biotherapeutics (NASDAQ:IOVA) and Prothena (NASDAQ:PRTA) are both healthcare companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their earnings, institutional ownership, profitability, analyst recommendations, risk, dividends and valuation.

Profitability

This table compares Iovance Biotherapeutics and Prothena’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Iovance Biotherapeutics	-89.11%	-40.51%	-31.65%
Prothena	-80.68%	-16.45%	-14.51%

Insider and Institutional Ownership

77.0% of Iovance Biotherapeutics shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 97.1% of Prothena shares are held by institutional investors. 7.8% of Iovance Biotherapeutics shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 10.4% of Prothena shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings for Iovance Biotherapeutics and Prothena, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Iovance Biotherapeutics	2	2	7	0	2.45
Prothena	1	1	5	1	2.75

Iovance Biotherapeutics presently has a consensus target price of $8.89, suggesting a potential upside of 9.27%. Prothena has a consensus target price of $24.57, suggesting a potential upside of 170.16%. Given Prothena’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Prothena is more favorable than Iovance Biotherapeutics.

Volatility & Risk

Iovance Biotherapeutics has a beta of 0.83, indicating that its stock price is 17% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Prothena has a beta of -0.33, indicating that its stock price is 133% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Iovance Biotherapeutics and Prothena”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Iovance Biotherapeutics	$263.50 million	13.98	-$390.98 million	($0.73)	-11.14
Prothena	$9.68 million	49.19	-$244.09 million	($0.84)	-10.83

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

Summary

Prothena beats Iovance Biotherapeutics on 11 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Iovance Biotherapeutics

Iovance Biotherapeutics, Inc., a commercial-stage biotechnology company, develops and commercializes cell therapies using autologous tumor infiltrating lymphocyte for the treatment of metastatic melanoma and other solid tumor cancers in the United States. The company offers Amtagvi, a tumor-derived autologous T cell immunotherapy used to treat adult patients with unresectable or metastatic melanoma; and Proleukin, an interleukin-2 product for the treatment of patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma. It also develops lifileucel in combination with pembrolizumab to treat frontline advanced melanoma patients; LN-145 for the treatment of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and solid tumor cancers; IOV-4001, which is in Phase 1/2 IOV-GM1-201 clinical trial, for the treatment of NSCLC; and lifileucel for gynecological cancers. The company has collaborations and licensing agreements with WuXi Advanced Therapies, Inc.; National Institutes of Health; the National Cancer Institute; H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center; The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center; Cellectis S.A.; Novartis Pharma AG; and Boehringer Ingelheim Biopharmaceuticals GmbH. The company was formerly known as Lion Biotechnologies, Inc. and changed its name to Iovance Biotherapeutics, Inc. in June 2017. Iovance Biotherapeutics, Inc. was incorporated in 2007 and is headquartered in San Carlos, California.

About Prothena

Prothena Corporation plc, a late-stage clinical biotechnology company, focuses on discovery and development of novel therapies to treat diseases caused by protein dysregulation in the United States. The company is involved in developing birtamimab, an investigational humanized antibody that is in Phase III clinical trial for the treatment of AL amyloidosis; Prasinezumab, a humanized monoclonal antibody, for the treatment of Parkinson’s disease and other related synucleinopathies which is in Phase IIb clinical trial; NNC6019 that is in Phase lI clinical trial for the treatment of ATTR amyloidosis; and BMS-986446 and PRX012, which is in Phase I clinical trial for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease. Its discovery and preclinical programs include PRX123, a dual Aß-Tau vaccine for the treatment and prevention of Alzheimer’s disease; and PRX019 for the treatment of neurogenerative diseases, as well as TDP-43 for the treatment of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Prothena Corporation plc has a license, development, and commercialization agreement with F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd. and Hoffmann-La Roche Inc. to develop and commercialize antibodies that target a-synuclein, including prasinezumab; and a collaboration agreement with Bristol-Myers Squibb to develop and commercialize antibodies targeting tau, TDP-43. The company was incorporated in 2012 and is based in Dublin, Ireland.