Analyzing TRACON Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:TCON) & Aura Biosciences (NASDAQ:AURA)

TRACON Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:TCON) and Aura Biosciences (NASDAQ:AURA) are both small-cap medical companies, but which is the superior stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their valuation, risk, dividends, institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, profitability and earnings.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares TRACON Pharmaceuticals and Aura Biosciences’ revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
TRACON Pharmaceuticals	$350,000.00	15.44	-$29.14 million	($0.58)	-0.30
Aura Biosciences	N/A	N/A	-$58.76 million	($1.94)	-4.28

TRACON Pharmaceuticals has higher revenue and earnings than Aura Biosciences. Aura Biosciences is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than TRACON Pharmaceuticals, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Risk and Volatility

TRACON Pharmaceuticals has a beta of 1.21, meaning that its share price is 21% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Aura Biosciences has a beta of 0.3, meaning that its share price is 70% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares TRACON Pharmaceuticals and Aura Biosciences’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
TRACON Pharmaceuticals	N/A	N/A	-53.84%
Aura Biosciences	N/A	-40.83%	-35.31%

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current recommendations and price targets for TRACON Pharmaceuticals and Aura Biosciences, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
TRACON Pharmaceuticals	0	1	2	0	2.67
Aura Biosciences	0	0	2	0	3.00

TRACON Pharmaceuticals currently has a consensus price target of $4.33, suggesting a potential upside of 2,397.60%. Aura Biosciences has a consensus price target of $21.00, suggesting a potential upside of 152.71%. Given TRACON Pharmaceuticals’ higher probable upside, research analysts plainly believe TRACON Pharmaceuticals is more favorable than Aura Biosciences.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

40.2% of TRACON Pharmaceuticals shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 70.9% of Aura Biosciences shares are owned by institutional investors. 5.3% of TRACON Pharmaceuticals shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 5.9% of Aura Biosciences shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Summary

TRACON Pharmaceuticals beats Aura Biosciences on 7 of the 11 factors compared between the two stocks.

About TRACON Pharmaceuticals

TRACON Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company, focuses on the development and commercialization of therapeutics for cancer in the United States. Its clinical stage products include envafolimab (KN035), a PD-L1 single-domain antibody for the treatment of soft tissue sarcoma; and YH001, an investigational humanized CTLA-4 IgG1 monoclonal antibody for the treatment of various cancer indications. The company's clinical stage products also include TRC102, a small molecule that is in Phase II clinical trial for the treatment of mesothelioma, and in Phase I clinical trial to treat solid tumors and lymphomas, lung cancer, and glioblastoma; and TJ004309, a CD73 antibody that is in Phase I clinical development for the treatment of solid tumors. It has collaboration and license agreements with 3D Medicines Co., Ltd. and Jiangsu Alphamab Biopharmaceuticals Co., Ltd. for the development of envafolimab; I-Mab Biopharma for the development of CD73 antibody TJ004309; Case Western Reserve University for the development of TRC102; and cooperative research and development agreement with National Cancer Institute. The company was formerly known as Lexington Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and changed its name to TRACON Pharmaceuticals, Inc. in March 2005. TRACON Pharmaceuticals, Inc. was incorporated in 2004 and is headquartered in San Diego, California.

About Aura Biosciences

Aura Biosciences, Inc. operates as a biotechnology company that develops therapies to treat cancer. The company develops virus-like drug conjugates (VDC) technology platform for treating tumors of high unmet need in ocular and urologic oncology. It is developing AU-011, a VDC candidate for the treatment of primary choroidal melanoma that is in phase III clinical trial. The company also develops AU-011 for additional ocular oncology indications, including choroidal metastases and is in Phase 2 dose-escalation trial. The company was incorporated in 2009 and is headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts.