Critical Contrast: Geron (NASDAQ:GERN) versus CG Oncology (NASDAQ:CGON)

CG Oncology (NASDAQ:CGON) and Geron (NASDAQ:GERN) are both medical companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their dividends, analyst recommendations, earnings, institutional ownership, valuation, profitability and risk.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares CG Oncology and Geron”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
CG Oncology	$1.14 million	3,563.63	-$88.04 million	($2.04)	-24.69
Geron	$76.99 million	12.69	-$174.57 million	($0.12)	-12.75

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

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current recommendations for CG Oncology and Geron, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
CG Oncology	1	2	11	0	2.71
Geron	2	4	4	0	2.20

CG Oncology presently has a consensus price target of $67.83, suggesting a potential upside of 34.70%. Geron has a consensus price target of $2.75, suggesting a potential upside of 79.74%. Given Geron’s higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Geron is more favorable than CG Oncology.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

26.6% of CG Oncology shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 73.7% of Geron shares are held by institutional investors. 7.4% of CG Oncology shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 7.4% of Geron shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Risk & Volatility

CG Oncology has a beta of 1.32, suggesting that its stock price is 32% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Geron has a beta of 0.62, suggesting that its stock price is 38% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares CG Oncology and Geron’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
CG Oncology	N/A	-21.67%	-20.79%
Geron	-43.61%	-29.63%	-13.74%

About CG Oncology

CG Oncology, Inc., an oncolytic immunotherapy company, focuses on developing and commercializing backbone bladder-sparing therapeutics for patients with bladder cancer. The company develops BOND-003 for the treatment of high-risk bacillus calmette guerin (BCG)-unresponsive non-muscle invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC) patients; CORE-001 to treat cretostimogene in combination with pembrolizumab in high-risk BCG-unresponsive NMIBC patients; and CORE-002 for the treatment of cretostimogene in combination with the checkpoint inhibitor nivolumab in muscle invasive bladder cancer patients. It also develops PIVOT-006, a cretostimogene monotherapy for intermediate-risk NMIBC following transurethral resection of the bladder tumor; and CORE-008 for treating patients with high-risk NMIBC, including BCG-exposed and BCG-naïve NMIBC patients. CG Oncology, Inc. was formerly known as Cold Genesys, Inc. and changed its name to CG Oncology, Inc. in June 2020. The company was founded in 2010 and is based in Irvine, California.

About Geron

Geron Corporation, a late-stage clinical biopharmaceutical company, focuses on the development and commercialization of therapeutics for myeloid hematologic malignancies. It develops imetelstat, a telomerase inhibitor that is in Phase 3 clinical trials, which inhibits the uncontrolled proliferation of malignant stem and progenitor cells in myeloid hematologic malignancies for the treatment of low or intermediate-1 risk myelodysplastic syndromes and intermediate-2 or high-risk myelofibrosis. The company was incorporated in 1990 and is headquartered in Foster City, California.