Fate Therapeutics (NASDAQ:FATE – Get Free Report) and Geron (NASDAQ:GERN – Get Free Report) are both small-cap healthcare companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, risk, profitability, dividends, valuation, institutional ownership and earnings.
Risk & Volatility
Fate Therapeutics has a beta of 2.65, meaning that its share price is 165% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Geron has a beta of 0.62, meaning that its share price is 38% less volatile than the S&P 500.
Analyst Ratings
This is a breakdown of recent ratings and recommmendations for Fate Therapeutics and Geron, as provided by MarketBeat.com.
| Sell Ratings | Hold Ratings | Buy Ratings | Strong Buy Ratings | Rating Score | |
| Fate Therapeutics | 1 | 1 | 4 | 0 | 2.50 |
| Geron | 1 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 2.33 |
Fate Therapeutics currently has a consensus price target of $5.80, suggesting a potential upside of 353.12%. Geron has a consensus price target of $3.75, suggesting a potential upside of 287.80%. Given Fate Therapeutics’ stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Fate Therapeutics is more favorable than Geron.
Institutional & Insider Ownership
97.5% of Fate Therapeutics shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 73.7% of Geron shares are held by institutional investors. 4.7% of Fate Therapeutics shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 1.7% of Geron shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.
Valuation and Earnings
This table compares Fate Therapeutics and Geron”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.
| Gross Revenue | Price/Sales Ratio | Net Income | Earnings Per Share | Price/Earnings Ratio | |
| Fate Therapeutics | $4.75 million | 32.76 | -$136.32 million | ($1.03) | -1.24 |
| Geron | $183.88 million | 3.39 | -$83.50 million | ($0.08) | -12.09 |
Geron has higher revenue and earnings than Fate Therapeutics. Geron is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Fate Therapeutics, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Profitability
This table compares Fate Therapeutics and Geron’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.
| Net Margins | Return on Equity | Return on Assets | |
| Fate Therapeutics | -1,941.09% | -73.92% | -45.16% |
| Geron | -23.04% | -16.29% | -6.82% |
Summary
Fate Therapeutics beats Geron on 8 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.
About Fate Therapeutics
Fate Therapeutics is a clinical-stage biotechnology company based in San Diego, California. It develops cellular immunotherapies using induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), which can be engineered and used to produce populations of therapeutic cells. The company’s research focuses on off-the-shelf cell therapies, including natural killer (NK) cell and T-cell programs designed to target cancer. Its approach aims to create standardized therapies that do not require cells to be collected from each individual patient.
About Geron
Geron Corporation is a biopharmaceutical company focused on developing and commercializing therapies for blood disorders and cancers. Its lead product, Rytelo (imetelstat), is a telomerase inhibitor approved in the United States to treat certain adults with lower-risk myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) who have transfusion-dependent anemia. Geron continues to develop imetelstat for potential use in other hematologic conditions. The company was founded in 1990 and is headquartered in Foster City, California.
Receive News & Ratings for Fate Therapeutics Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for Fate Therapeutics and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter.
