Financial Analysis: Lyell Immunopharma (NASDAQ:LYEL) & Cartesian Therapeutics (NASDAQ:RNAC)

Lyell Immunopharma (NASDAQ:LYEL) and Cartesian Therapeutics (NASDAQ:RNAC) are both small-cap medical companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their dividends, profitability, earnings, institutional ownership, risk, analyst recommendations and valuation.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations and price targets for Lyell Immunopharma and Cartesian Therapeutics, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Lyell Immunopharma	1	1	0	0	1.50
Cartesian Therapeutics	0	2	8	0	2.80

Lyell Immunopharma presently has a consensus price target of $1.00, suggesting a potential upside of 73.76%. Cartesian Therapeutics has a consensus price target of $42.86, suggesting a potential upside of 124.85%. Given Cartesian Therapeutics’ stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Cartesian Therapeutics is more favorable than Lyell Immunopharma.

Volatility and Risk

Lyell Immunopharma has a beta of -0.35, suggesting that its share price is 135% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Cartesian Therapeutics has a beta of 0.56, suggesting that its share price is 44% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Lyell Immunopharma and Cartesian Therapeutics”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Lyell Immunopharma	$130,000.00	1,293.37	-$234.63 million	($0.79)	-0.73
Cartesian Therapeutics	$26.00 million	18.63	-$219.71 million	($52.83)	-0.36

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

Profitability

This table compares Lyell Immunopharma and Cartesian Therapeutics’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Lyell Immunopharma	-323,792.09%	-34.64%	-30.02%
Cartesian Therapeutics	-510.72%	N/A	-6.03%

Institutional and Insider Ownership

66.1% of Lyell Immunopharma shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 87.0% of Cartesian Therapeutics shares are owned by institutional investors. 25.1% of Lyell Immunopharma shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 57.9% of Cartesian Therapeutics shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Summary

Cartesian Therapeutics beats Lyell Immunopharma on 12 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Lyell Immunopharma

Lyell Immunopharma, Inc., a clinical-stage cell therapy company, develops T cell reprogramming technologies for patients with solid tumors. The company develops therapies using an ex vivo genetic reprogramming technologies, such as c Jun overexpression and NR4A3 gene knockout, to endow resistance to T cell exhaustion; and an ex vivo epigenetic reprogramming technologies, including Epi R to generate population of T cells with durable stemness, and Stim R, a proprietary synthetic cell mimetic. It is also developing LYL797, a genetically and epigenetically reprogrammed ROR1 chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell product candidate that is in Phase 1 clinical trial for the treatment of various solid tumors; and LYL845, a novel epigenetically reprogrammed tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes product candidate, which is in Phase 1 clinical trial targeting multiple solid tumor indications. In addition, the company's preclinical product candidates include LYL119, a ROR1 CAR T-cell product for the treatment of enhanced cytotoxicity; and second generation TIL product. Lyell Immunopharma, Inc. was incorporated in 2018 and is headquartered in South San Francisco, California.

About Cartesian Therapeutics

Cartesian Therapeutics, Inc., a clinical-stage biotechnology company, engages in the provision of mRNA cell therapies for the treatment of autoimmune diseases. It develops Descartes-08, an autologous anti-BCMA RNA-engineered chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy, currently under Phase 2b clinical development for generalized myasthenia gravis, as well as for patients with systemic lupus erythematosus, and myeloma autoimmune basket trials for other autoimmune diseases. The company develops Descartes-15 to treat Autoimmune diseases, myeloma; and Descartes-33 which is in preclinical development for treatment of autoimmune diseases. Cartesian Therapeutics, Inc. is headquartered in Gaithersburg, Maryland.