Critical Survey: Lantern Pharma (NASDAQ:LTRN) vs. Iovance Biotherapeutics (NASDAQ:IOVA)

Lantern Pharma (NASDAQ:LTRN) and Iovance Biotherapeutics (NASDAQ:IOVA) are both small-cap medical companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their profitability, valuation, earnings, analyst recommendations, risk, institutional ownership and dividends.

Volatility and Risk

Lantern Pharma has a beta of 2.33, suggesting that its stock price is 133% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Iovance Biotherapeutics has a beta of 0.74, suggesting that its stock price is 26% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Lantern Pharma and Iovance Biotherapeutics”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Lantern Pharma	N/A	N/A	-$17.12 million	($1.45)	-2.65
Iovance Biotherapeutics	$263.50 million	7.52	-$390.98 million	($0.95)	-4.67

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

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations and price targets for Lantern Pharma and Iovance Biotherapeutics, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Lantern Pharma	1	0	0	0	1.00
Iovance Biotherapeutics	2	3	5	0	2.30

Iovance Biotherapeutics has a consensus target price of $8.43, indicating a potential upside of 89.83%. Given Iovance Biotherapeutics’ stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Iovance Biotherapeutics is more favorable than Lantern Pharma.

Profitability

This table compares Lantern Pharma and Iovance Biotherapeutics’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Lantern Pharma	N/A	-198.34%	-129.08%
Iovance Biotherapeutics	-123.92%	-50.17%	-38.77%

Institutional & Insider Ownership

28.6% of Lantern Pharma shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 77.0% of Iovance Biotherapeutics shares are owned by institutional investors. 8.5% of Lantern Pharma shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 7.8% of Iovance Biotherapeutics shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Summary

Iovance Biotherapeutics beats Lantern Pharma on 8 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Lantern Pharma

Lantern Pharma Inc., a clinical stage biotechnology company, focuses on artificial intelligence, machine learning, and genomic data to streamline the drug development process. Its product pipeline comprises LP-300, which is in phase 2 clinical trial in combination therapy for never-smokers with non-small cell lung cancer adenocarcinoma; LP-184, which is in phase 1 clinical trial for the treatment of solid tumor, such as pancreatic, breast, bladder, and lung cancers, and glioblastoma and other central nervous system cancers; and LP-284, which is in phase 1 clinical trial for the treatment of non-Hodgkin's lymphomas, including mantle cell lymphoma and double hit lymphoma. The company develops STAR-001, which is in preclinical development for the treatment of glioblastoma, brain metastases, atypical teratoid rhabdoid tumors, and pediatric rare disease designation. In addition, it provides ADC program, an antibody drug conjugate therapeutic approach for cancer treatment. Further, the company's artificial intelligence platform RADR uses big data analytics and machine learning for combining molecular data. Lantern Pharma Inc. has a strategic AI-driven collaboration with Oregon Therapeutics to optimize the development of its first-in-class protein disulfide isomerase inhibitor drug candidate XCE853 in novel and targeted cancer indications. The company was incorporated in 2013 and is headquartered in Dallas, Texas.

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.