Financial Review: Sagimet Biosciences (NASDAQ:SGMT) vs. AC Immune (NASDAQ:ACIU)

Sagimet Biosciences (NASDAQ:SGMT) and AC Immune (NASDAQ:ACIU) are both small-cap medical companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, valuation, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, earnings, profitability and dividends.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent recommendations for Sagimet Biosciences and AC Immune, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Sagimet Biosciences	1	2	7	0	2.60
AC Immune	1	1	2	0	2.25

Sagimet Biosciences presently has a consensus price target of $26.00, indicating a potential upside of 413.83%. AC Immune has a consensus price target of $10.00, indicating a potential upside of 234.45%. Given Sagimet Biosciences’ stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities analysts clearly believe Sagimet Biosciences is more favorable than AC Immune.

Risk and Volatility

Sagimet Biosciences has a beta of 3.39, indicating that its stock price is 239% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, AC Immune has a beta of 1.66, indicating that its stock price is 66% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Sagimet Biosciences and AC Immune”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Sagimet Biosciences	$2.00 million	82.28	-$45.57 million	($1.78)	-2.84
AC Immune	$31.02 million	9.68	-$57.83 million	($0.84)	-3.56

Sagimet Biosciences has higher earnings, but lower revenue than AC Immune. AC Immune is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Sagimet Biosciences, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

This table compares Sagimet Biosciences and AC Immune’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Sagimet Biosciences	N/A	-42.39%	-40.31%
AC Immune	-1,642.89%	-84.32%	-35.94%

Institutional & Insider Ownership

87.9% of Sagimet Biosciences shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 51.4% of AC Immune shares are owned by institutional investors. 14.7% of Sagimet Biosciences shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 4.6% of AC Immune shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Summary

Sagimet Biosciences beats AC Immune on 11 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Sagimet Biosciences

Sagimet Biosciences Inc., a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, develops therapeutics called fatty acid synthase (FASN) inhibitors for the treatment of diseases that result from dysfunctional metabolic pathways in the United States. The company’s lead drug candidate is Denifanstat, a once-daily pill and selective FASN inhibitor for the treatment of metabolic dysfunction associated steatohepatitis. It also develops TVB-3567, a FASN inhibitor for the treatment of acne; and other oncology programs. The company was formerly known as 3-V Biosciences, Inc. and changed its name to Sagimet Biosciences Inc. in August 2019. Sagimet Biosciences Inc. was incorporated in 2006 and is headquartered in San Mateo, California.

About AC Immune

AC Immune SA, a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company, discovers, designs, and develops medicines and diagnostic products for the prevention and treatment of neurodegenerative diseases associated with protein misfolding. Its SupraAntigen and Morphomer platforms are designed to generate vaccines, antibodies, and small molecules, which selectively interact with misfolded proteins that are common in a range of neurodegenerative diseases. The company is developing Crenezumab, a humanized, conformation-specific monoclonal antibody, which is in Phase II clinical studies trial for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease (AD). It is also developing ACI-24, an anti-Abeta vaccine candidate that is in Phase II clinical study for AD, as well as completed Phase Ib clinical study for Down syndrome; ACI-35, an anti-Tau vaccine candidate that is in Phase Ib/2a clinical study; and Tau- positron emission tomography (PET) imaging tracer, which is in Phase II clinical study. In addition, the company is researching and developing small molecule Tau aggregation inhibitors for AD and NeuroOrphan indications. Further, it has discovery and preclinical stage molecules targeting range of neurodegenerative diseases, which include diagnostics targeting TDP-43, alpha-synuclein, and NLRP3. AC Immune SA has license agreements and collaborations with Genentech, Inc.; Biogen International GmbH; Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Inc.; Life Molecular Imaging SA; Eli Lilly and Company; and WuXi Biologics. The company was incorporated in 2003 and is headquartered in Lausanne, Switzerland.