Comparing Seres Therapeutics (NASDAQ:MCRB) and Aligos Therapeutics (NASDAQ:ALGS)

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

Earnings & Valuation

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

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Aligos Therapeutics	$2.19 million	14.87	-$24.19 million	($7.30)	-0.72
Seres Therapeutics	$790,000.00	63.73	$5.70 million	($2.43)	-2.06

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

Volatility and Risk

Aligos Therapeutics has a beta of 2.34, meaning that its share price is 134% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Seres Therapeutics has a beta of 0.21, meaning that its share price is 79% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

60.4% of Aligos Therapeutics shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 59.3% of Seres Therapeutics shares are held by institutional investors. 7.8% of Aligos Therapeutics shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 5.2% of Seres Therapeutics shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Profitability

This table compares Aligos Therapeutics and Seres Therapeutics’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Aligos Therapeutics	-241.01%	-160.72%	-92.30%
Seres Therapeutics	-1,192.94%	-114.82%	-34.15%

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current ratings for Aligos Therapeutics and Seres Therapeutics, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Aligos Therapeutics	1	0	5	1	2.86
Seres Therapeutics	1	1	2	0	2.25

Aligos Therapeutics currently has a consensus price target of $38.50, indicating a potential upside of 637.55%. Seres Therapeutics has a consensus price target of $17.00, indicating a potential upside of 239.32%. Given Aligos Therapeutics’ stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, research analysts plainly believe Aligos Therapeutics is more favorable than Seres Therapeutics.

Summary

Aligos Therapeutics beats Seres Therapeutics on 10 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Aligos Therapeutics

Aligos Therapeutics, Inc., a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, focuses on the development of novel therapeutics to address unmet medical needs in viral and liver diseases. Its drug candidate, ALG-055009, a small molecule THR-ß agonist that is in the Phase 2a clinical trial for the treatment of non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH). The company also develops ALG-000184, a capsid assembly modulator, which is completed Phase 1b clinical trial to treat chronic hepatitis B (CHB); and ALG-125755, a siRNA drug candidate, which is in Phase I clinical trial for the treatment of CHB. In addition, it develops ALG-097558, which is in Phase 2 clinical trial for the treatment of coronavirus. The company has entered into license and research collaboration agreement with Merck to discover, research, optimize, and develop oligonucleotides directed against a NASH; license agreement with Emory University to provide hepatitis B virus capsid assembly modulator technology; license agreement with Luxna Biotech Co., Ltd. to develop and commercialize products containing oligonucleotides targeting hepatitis B virus genome; and research, licensing, and commercialization agreement with Katholieke Universiteit Leuven to develop coronavirus protease inhibitors. Aligos Therapeutics, Inc. was incorporated in 2018 and is headquartered in South San Francisco, California.

About Seres Therapeutics

Seres Therapeutics, Inc., a microbiome therapeutics company, develop microbiome therapeutics to treat the modulation of the colonic microbiome. It develops a novel class of biological drugs that are designed to treat by modulating the microbiome to restore health by repairing the function of a disrupted microbiome to a non-disease state. The company’s lead product candidate is VOWST, an oral microbiome therapeutic that has completed Phase III clinical trial for the treatment of recurrent Clostridioides difficile infection. Its product pipeline also includes SER-155, an investigational oral fermented microbiome therapeutic which is in Phase 1b clinical trials for the treatment of gastrointestinal infections, bacteremia, and graft versus host disease in immunocompromised patients including patients receiving allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. In addition, the company engages in the development of SER-287 which is in Phase 2b and SER-301 that is in Phase 1b to treat ulcerative colitis. Further, it has license Agreement with NHSc Rx License GmbH for the therapeutic products based on the microbiome technology, which includes VOWST product candidate, which is developed for the treatment of CDI and recurrent CDI; and collaboration license agreement with Société des Produits Nestlé S.A. (Nestlé) for the development and commercialization of certain product candidates for the treatment and management of CDI and inflammatory bowel disease including UC and Crohn’s disease. The company was formerly known as Seres Health, Inc. and changed its name to Seres Therapeutics, Inc. in May 2015. Seres Therapeutics, Inc. was incorporated in 2010 and is headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts.