Reviewing Cardiff Oncology (NASDAQ:CRDF) & Curis (NASDAQ:CRIS)

Curis (NASDAQ:CRIS) and Cardiff Oncology (NASDAQ:CRDF) are both small-cap medical companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their valuation, dividends, profitability, earnings, institutional ownership, risk and analyst recommendations.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current ratings and target prices for Curis and Cardiff Oncology, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Curis	0	0	3	0	3.00
Cardiff Oncology	0	0	3	0	3.00

Curis presently has a consensus price target of $26.00, indicating a potential upside of 507.48%. Cardiff Oncology has a consensus price target of $9.67, indicating a potential upside of 209.83%. Given Curis’ higher probable upside, research analysts plainly believe Curis is more favorable than Cardiff Oncology.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

30.0% of Curis shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 16.3% of Cardiff Oncology shares are owned by institutional investors. 5.7% of Curis shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 7.6% of Cardiff Oncology shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Risk & Volatility

Curis has a beta of 3.32, indicating that its stock price is 232% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Cardiff Oncology has a beta of 1.96, indicating that its stock price is 96% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Curis and Cardiff Oncology”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Curis	$10.16 million	2.52	-$47.41 million	($8.24)	-0.52
Cardiff Oncology	$665,000.00	218.40	-$41.44 million	($0.91)	-3.43

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

Profitability

This table compares Curis and Cardiff Oncology’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Curis	-468.18%	-327.92%	-68.03%
Cardiff Oncology	-6,143.91%	-62.65%	-52.69%

About Curis

Curis, Inc., a biotechnology company, engages in the discovery and development of drug candidates for the treatment of human cancers in the United States. Its clinical stage drug candidates include Emavusertib, an oral small molecule IRAK4 kinase inhibitor, which is in a Phase 1/2 open-label, single arm expansion trial in patients with relapsed or refractory, or R/R, AML and high-risk myelodysplastic syndromes. The company’s pipeline also includes Fimepinostat, an oral dual inhibitor of HDAC and PI3K enzymes for the treatment of patients with relapsed or refractory diffuse large B-cell lymphoma; CA-170, an oral, small molecule antagonist designated as CA-170 that selectively targets PD-L1 and VISTA; and CA-327, an oral, small molecule, TIM3/PD-L1, which is a molecule antagonist of PD-L1 and TIM3. It has collaboration agreement with Genentech Inc., or Genentech and F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd, or Roche, for the commercialization of Erivedge, an orally-administered small molecule hedgehog signaling pathway antagonist for the treatment of advanced basal cell carcinoma, or BCC; Aurigene Discovery Technologies Limited for the discovery, development, and commercialization of small molecule compounds in the areas of immuno-oncology and precision oncology; and also licensed four programs under the Aurigene collaboration, including emavusertib. Curis, Inc. was incorporated in 2000 and is headquartered in Lexington, Massachusetts.

About Cardiff Oncology

Cardiff Oncology, Inc., a clinical-stage biotechnology company, develops novel therapies to treat various cancers in California. Its lead drug candidate is onvansertib, an oral selective Polo-like Kinase 1 Inhibitor to treatment a range of solid tumor cancers and KRAS/NRAS-mutated metastatic colorectal and metastatic pancreatic cancer, as well as investigator-initiated trials in triple negative breast cancer and small cell lung cancer; and TROV-054 is a Phase 1b/2 for FOLFIRI and bevacizumab. The company primarily serves pharmaceutical manufacturers. The company was formerly known as Trovagene, Inc. and changed its name to Cardiff Oncology, Inc. in May 2012. Cardiff Oncology, Inc. was incorporated in 1999 and is headquartered in San Diego, California.