Pliant Therapeutics (NASDAQ:PLRX) and BioAtla (NASDAQ:BCAB) Financial Survey

BioAtla (NASDAQ:BCAB) and Pliant Therapeutics (NASDAQ:PLRX) are both small-cap healthcare companies, but which is the better business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their dividends, profitability, valuation, institutional ownership, risk, earnings and analyst recommendations.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent ratings and recommmendations for BioAtla and Pliant Therapeutics, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
BioAtla	1	0	1	0	2.00
Pliant Therapeutics	1	1	1	0	2.00

BioAtla currently has a consensus target price of $200.00, suggesting a potential upside of 10,156.41%. Pliant Therapeutics has a consensus target price of $3.00, suggesting a potential upside of 241.69%. Given BioAtla’s higher probable upside, research analysts plainly believe BioAtla is more favorable than Pliant Therapeutics.

Risk and Volatility

BioAtla has a beta of 0.64, suggesting that its share price is 36% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Pliant Therapeutics has a beta of 1.27, suggesting that its share price is 27% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares BioAtla and Pliant Therapeutics”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
BioAtla	$8.50 million	0.38	-$59.61 million	($25.45)	-0.08
Pliant Therapeutics	$1.58 million	34.41	-$149.34 million	($1.49)	-0.59

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

Insider & Institutional Ownership

77.2% of BioAtla shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 97.3% of Pliant Therapeutics shares are held by institutional investors. 9.3% of BioAtla shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 8.7% of Pliant Therapeutics 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.

Profitability

This table compares BioAtla and Pliant Therapeutics’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
BioAtla	N/A	N/A	-289.67%
Pliant Therapeutics	N/A	-52.17%	-40.46%

Summary

BioAtla beats Pliant Therapeutics on 6 of the 11 factors compared between the two stocks.

About BioAtla

BioAtla, Inc., a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, develops specific and selective antibody-based therapeutics for the treatment of solid tumor cancer. The company's lead clinical stage product candidates include mecbotamab vedotin (BA3011), a conditionally active biologic (CAB) antibody-drug conjugate (ADC), which is in Phase II clinical trial for treating undifferentiated pleomorphic sarcoma and non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC); and ozuriftabmab vedotin (BA3021), a CAB ADC that is in Phase II clinical trial for the treatment of melanoma and squamous cell cancer of the head and neck. It is also developing Evalstotug (BA3071), a CAB anti-cytotoxic T-lymphocyte-associated antigen 4 antibody, which is in Phase II clinical trial for treating melanoma, carcinomas, and NSCLC; and BA3182, a bispecific candidate that is in Phase 1 study for the treatment of adenocarcinomas, as well as BA3361, which is in preclinical studies for treating multiple tumor types. The company was founded in 2007 and is headquartered in San Diego, California.

About Pliant Therapeutics

Pliant Therapeutics, Inc., a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company, discovers, develops, and commercializes novel therapies for the treatment of fibrosis and related diseases in the United States. The company's lead candidate is bexotegrast, an oral, small-molecule, dual selective inhibitor of avß6 and avß1 integrins, which is in phase 2b trials for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis and in phase 2a trial for primary sclerosing cholangitis. It also develops PLN-1474, an oral, small-molecule selective inhibitor of avß1 for the treatment of liver fibrosis associated with nonalcoholic steatohepatitis; PLN-101095, a dual inhibitor of integrins avß8 and avß1 for the treatment of solid tumors; and PLN-101325 for treatment of muscular dystrophies. Pliant Therapeutics, Inc. was incorporated in 2015 and is based in South San Francisco, California.