Financial Analysis: Iovance Biotherapeutics (IOVA) versus Its Peers

Iovance Biotherapeutics (NASDAQ:IOVA) is one of 846 public companies in the “Biotechnology” industry, but how does it weigh in compared to its peers? We will compare Iovance Biotherapeutics to similar companies based on the strength of its institutional ownership, risk, profitability, valuation, analyst recommendations, earnings and dividends.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Iovance Biotherapeutics and its peers revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
Iovance Biotherapeutics	$378.98 million	-$390.98 million	-15.26
Iovance Biotherapeutics Competitors	$722.00 million	$11.43 million	-14.85

Iovance Biotherapeutics’ peers have higher revenue and earnings than Iovance Biotherapeutics. Iovance Biotherapeutics is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than its peers, indicating that it is currently more affordable than other companies in its industry.

Profitability

This table compares Iovance Biotherapeutics and its peers’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Iovance Biotherapeutics	-58.20%	-29.71%	-23.55%
Iovance Biotherapeutics Competitors	-12,285.98%	-196.04%	-30.61%

Insider and Institutional Ownership

77.0% of Iovance Biotherapeutics shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 47.7% of shares of all “Biotechnology” companies are owned by institutional investors. 7.8% of Iovance Biotherapeutics shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 13.0% of shares of all “Biotechnology” companies are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Risk and Volatility

Iovance Biotherapeutics has a beta of 0.88, indicating that its share price is 12% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Iovance Biotherapeutics’ peers have a beta of 1.15, indicating that their average share price is 15% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and recommmendations for Iovance Biotherapeutics and its peers, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Iovance Biotherapeutics	1	3	9	1	2.71
Iovance Biotherapeutics Competitors	9904	15273	45596	1593	2.54

Iovance Biotherapeutics presently has a consensus price target of $13.80, indicating a potential upside of 70.58%. As a group, “Biotechnology” companies have a potential upside of 99.41%. Given Iovance Biotherapeutics’ peers higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Iovance Biotherapeutics has less favorable growth aspects than its peers.

Summary

Iovance Biotherapeutics beats its peers on 7 of the 13 factors compared.

Iovance Biotherapeutics Company Profile

Iovance Biotherapeutics is a biotechnology company focused on developing and commercializing personalized cell therapies for cancer. Its approach uses tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs), immune cells collected from a patient’s tumor, which are expanded in a laboratory and returned to the patient. The company’s lead product, Amtagvi (lifileucel), is a TIL therapy approved in the United States for certain adults with unresectable or metastatic melanoma previously treated with specified therapies.