Financial Survey: ImageneBio (NASDAQ:IMA) vs. Arcturus Therapeutics (NASDAQ:ARCT)

Arcturus Therapeutics (NASDAQ:ARCT) and ImageneBio (NASDAQ:IMA) are both small-cap healthcare companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their profitability, risk, institutional ownership, dividends, analyst recommendations, valuation and earnings.

Risk and Volatility

Arcturus Therapeutics has a beta of 2.48, meaning that its share price is 148% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, ImageneBio has a beta of 0.74, meaning that its share price is 26% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

94.5% of Arcturus Therapeutics shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 75.0% of ImageneBio shares are held by institutional investors. 17.8% of Arcturus Therapeutics shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 2.2% of ImageneBio shares are held 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.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current recommendations and price targets for Arcturus Therapeutics and ImageneBio, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Arcturus Therapeutics	1	3	6	1	2.64
ImageneBio	2	0	1	1	2.25

Arcturus Therapeutics currently has a consensus target price of $22.43, indicating a potential upside of 72.13%. ImageneBio has a consensus target price of $29.00, indicating a potential upside of 530.43%. Given ImageneBio’s higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe ImageneBio is more favorable than Arcturus Therapeutics.

Profitability

This table compares Arcturus Therapeutics and ImageneBio’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Arcturus Therapeutics	-317.62%	-46.54%	-36.46%
ImageneBio	N/A	-38.99%	-34.84%

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Arcturus Therapeutics and ImageneBio”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Arcturus Therapeutics	$18.72 million	19.78	-$65.78 million	($3.31)	-3.94
ImageneBio	$800,000.00	65.26	-$45.35 million	($4.58)	-1.00

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

About Arcturus Therapeutics

Arcturus Therapeutics Holdings Inc., a late-stage clinical messenger RNA medicines and vaccine company, focuses on the development of infectious disease vaccines and other products within liver and respiratory rare diseases. Its technology platforms include LUNAR lipid-mediated delivery and STARR mRNA. The company is developing ARCT-810 (LUNAR-OTC), a mRNA-based therapeutic candidate, which is in Phase 2 clinical trial for treating ornithine transcarbamylase deficiency; and ARCT-154 (LUNAR-COV19), a mRNA vaccine candidate that is in Phase 3 arm of a Phase 1/2/3 study in Vietnam for the treatment of COVID-19, as well as ARCT-032 (LUNAR-CF), a mRNA therapeutic candidate for cystic fibrosis. Its product pipeline includes, ARCT-2301 for bivalent: ancestral/omicron which is in Phase 3; ARCT-2303 for monovalent that is in Phase 3; ARCT-2138 for quadrivalent which is in Phase 1; and LUNAR-FLU which is in pre-clinical trial. Arcturus Therapeutics Holdings Inc. was founded in 2013 and is headquartered in San Diego, California.

About ImageneBio

ImageneBio, Inc., a clinical-stage biotechnology company, develops therapeutics for immunological and inflammatory diseases. Its lead product includes IMG-007, a non-depleting anti-OX40 mAb that has completed Phase 2a clinical trials for the treatment of atopic dermatitis and alopecia areata. The company was formerly known as Ikena Oncology, Inc. and changed its name to ImageneBio, Inc. in July 2025. ImageneBio, Inc. is headquartered in San Diego, California.