Comparing Atara Biotherapeutics (NASDAQ:ATRA) and ImmunityBio (NASDAQ:IBRX)

ImmunityBio (NASDAQ:IBRX) and Atara Biotherapeutics (NASDAQ:ATRA) are both medical companies, but which is the better business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, risk, earnings, dividends, institutional ownership, profitability and valuation.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current recommendations and price targets for ImmunityBio and Atara Biotherapeutics, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
ImmunityBio	0	0	4	1	3.20
Atara Biotherapeutics	1	2	3	1	2.57

ImmunityBio currently has a consensus price target of $12.25, suggesting a potential upside of 288.89%. Atara Biotherapeutics has a consensus price target of $17.75, suggesting a potential upside of 92.31%. Given ImmunityBio’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, research analysts plainly believe ImmunityBio is more favorable than Atara Biotherapeutics.

Profitability

This table compares ImmunityBio and Atara Biotherapeutics’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
ImmunityBio	-8,016.83%	N/A	-110.02%
Atara Biotherapeutics	-132.58%	N/A	-90.16%

Volatility & Risk

ImmunityBio has a beta of 0.14, indicating that its share price is 86% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Atara Biotherapeutics has a beta of 0.19, indicating that its share price is 81% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

8.6% of ImmunityBio shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 70.9% of Atara Biotherapeutics shares are owned by institutional investors. 76.8% of ImmunityBio shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 4.0% of Atara Biotherapeutics shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares ImmunityBio and Atara Biotherapeutics”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
ImmunityBio	$31.22 million	89.05	-$583.20 million	($0.58)	-5.43
Atara Biotherapeutics	$199.73 million	0.28	-$276.13 million	($3.72)	-2.48

Atara Biotherapeutics has higher revenue and earnings than ImmunityBio. ImmunityBio is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Atara Biotherapeutics, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Summary

Atara Biotherapeutics beats ImmunityBio on 7 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

About ImmunityBio

ImmunityBio, Inc., a clinical-stage biotechnology company, engages in developing therapies and vaccines that bolster the natural immune system to defeat cancers and infectious diseases. Its platforms for the development of biologic product candidates include antibody-cytokine fusion proteins; DNA, RNA, and recombinant protein vaccines; and cell therapies. The company's platforms have generated therapeutic agents that are currently being or planned to be studied in clinical trials across various indications in liquid and solid tumors, including bladder, lung and colorectal cancers, and glioblastoma multiforme. Its lead biologic product candidate is Anktiva, an FDA-approved immunotherapy in combination with bacillus calmette-guérin (BCG) for the treatment of adult patients with BCG unresponsive non-muscle invasive bladder cancer with carcinoma in situ, with or without papillary tumors. The company has collaboration agreements with National Cancer Institute. It also has license agreements with 3M Innovative Properties Company; Access to Advanced Health Institute; LadRx Corporation; Sanford Health; Shenzhen Beike Biotechnology Co. Ltd.; Viracta Therapeutics, Inc.; and GlobeImmune, Inc. The company is based in San Diego, California.

About Atara Biotherapeutics

Atara Biotherapeutics, Inc. engages in the development of transformative therapies for patients with solid tumors, hematologic cancers, and autoimmune diseases in the United States and the United Kingdom. Its lead product includes Tab-cel (tabelecleucel), a T-cell immunotherapy program that is in Phase 3 clinical trials for the treatment of epstein-barr virus (EBV) driven post-transplant lymphoproliferative disease, as well as nasopharyngeal carcinoma. Its CAR T immunotherapy pipeline products include ATA3219, currently in Phase 1 trials, as well as ATA3431, under preclinical trials for the treatment of B-cell malignancies and autoimmune diseases; and ATA188 that is in Phase 2 clinical trials to treat multiple sclerosis. The company has research collaboration agreements with Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, and Council of the Queensland Institute of Medical Research. Atara Biotherapeutics, Inc. was incorporated in 2012 and is headquartered in Thousand Oaks, California.