Contrasting Geron (NASDAQ:GERN) & CG Oncology (NASDAQ:CGON)

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

Earnings & Valuation

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

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
CG Oncology	$1.14 million	3,644.30	-$88.04 million	($2.04)	-25.25
Geron	$183.40 million	5.74	-$174.57 million	($0.12)	-13.75

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.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

26.6% of CG Oncology shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 73.7% of Geron shares are owned by institutional investors. 7.4% of CG Oncology shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 7.4% of Geron shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Volatility and Risk

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

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations for CG Oncology and Geron, as reported by MarketBeat.

	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 currently has a consensus target price of $68.58, indicating a potential upside of 33.17%. Geron has a consensus target price of $2.75, indicating a potential upside of 66.67%. Given Geron’s higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Geron is more favorable than CG Oncology.

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.