Contrasting Celldex Therapeutics (NASDAQ:CLDX) and Iovance Biotherapeutics (NASDAQ:IOVA)

Iovance Biotherapeutics (NASDAQ:IOVA) and Celldex Therapeutics (NASDAQ:CLDX) are both mid-cap healthcare companies, but which is the better business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, valuation, institutional ownership, earnings, dividends, profitability and analyst recommendations.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

77.0% of Iovance Biotherapeutics shares are held by institutional investors. 7.8% of Iovance Biotherapeutics shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 5.2% of Celldex Therapeutics shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

This table compares Iovance Biotherapeutics and Celldex Therapeutics’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Iovance Biotherapeutics	-89.11%	-40.51%	-31.65%
Celldex Therapeutics	N/A	-52.35%	-47.61%

Risk & Volatility

Iovance Biotherapeutics has a beta of 0.71, meaning that its share price is 29% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Celldex Therapeutics has a beta of 0.87, meaning that its share price is 13% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Iovance Biotherapeutics and Celldex Therapeutics”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Iovance Biotherapeutics	$263.50 million	12.08	-$390.98 million	($0.73)	-9.63
Celldex Therapeutics	$1.54 million	2,131.02	-$258.76 million	($4.35)	-9.61

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

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current ratings and recommmendations for Iovance Biotherapeutics and Celldex Therapeutics, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Iovance Biotherapeutics	2	2	6	0	2.40
Celldex Therapeutics	1	1	11	1	2.86

Iovance Biotherapeutics currently has a consensus target price of $8.38, suggesting a potential upside of 19.13%. Celldex Therapeutics has a consensus target price of $55.46, suggesting a potential upside of 32.71%. Given Celldex Therapeutics’ stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Celldex Therapeutics is more favorable than Iovance Biotherapeutics.

Summary

Celldex Therapeutics beats Iovance Biotherapeutics on 9 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Iovance Biotherapeutics

Iovance Biotherapeutics, Inc., a commercial-stage biotechnology company, develops and commercializes cell therapies using autologous tumor infiltrating lymphocyte for the treatment of metastatic melanoma and other solid tumor cancers in the United States. The company offers Amtagvi, a tumor-derived autologous T cell immunotherapy used to treat adult patients with unresectable or metastatic melanoma; and Proleukin, an interleukin-2 product for the treatment of patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma. It also develops lifileucel in combination with pembrolizumab to treat frontline advanced melanoma patients; LN-145 for the treatment of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and solid tumor cancers; IOV-4001, which is in Phase 1/2 IOV-GM1-201 clinical trial, for the treatment of NSCLC; and lifileucel for gynecological cancers. The company has collaborations and licensing agreements with WuXi Advanced Therapies, Inc.; National Institutes of Health; the National Cancer Institute; H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center; The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center; Cellectis S.A.; Novartis Pharma AG; and Boehringer Ingelheim Biopharmaceuticals GmbH. The company was formerly known as Lion Biotechnologies, Inc. and changed its name to Iovance Biotherapeutics, Inc. in June 2017. Iovance Biotherapeutics, Inc. was incorporated in 2007 and is headquartered in San Carlos, California.

About Celldex Therapeutics

Celldex Therapeutics, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company, engages in developing therapeutic monoclonal and bispecific antibodies for the treatment of various diseases. Its drug candidates include antibody-based therapeutics to treat patients with inflammatory, allergic, autoimmune, and other devastating diseases. The company’s clinical development programs CDX-0159, a Phase II monoclonal antibody that binds the receptor tyrosine kinase KIT and inhibits its activity. It has research collaboration and license agreements with Yale University. The company was incorporated in 1983 and is headquartered in Hampton, New Jersey.