Head to Head Contrast: Adaptive Biotechnologies (NASDAQ:ADPT) and X4 Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:XFOR)

X4 Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:XFOR) and Adaptive Biotechnologies (NASDAQ:ADPT) are both small-cap medical companies, but which is the superior stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, dividends, profitability, earnings, valuation and risk.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent recommendations for X4 Pharmaceuticals and Adaptive Biotechnologies, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
X4 Pharmaceuticals	0	0	3	0	3.00
Adaptive Biotechnologies	0	0	5	0	3.00

X4 Pharmaceuticals currently has a consensus price target of $3.50, suggesting a potential upside of 1,086.44%. Adaptive Biotechnologies has a consensus price target of $9.40, suggesting a potential upside of 8.55%. Given X4 Pharmaceuticals’ higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe X4 Pharmaceuticals is more favorable than Adaptive Biotechnologies.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

72.0% of X4 Pharmaceuticals shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 99.2% of Adaptive Biotechnologies shares are held by institutional investors. 1.6% of X4 Pharmaceuticals shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 6.2% of Adaptive Biotechnologies 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.

Volatility and Risk

X4 Pharmaceuticals has a beta of 0.39, indicating that its stock price is 61% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Adaptive Biotechnologies has a beta of 1.53, indicating that its stock price is 53% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares X4 Pharmaceuticals and Adaptive Biotechnologies”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
X4 Pharmaceuticals	$1.12 million	45.62	-$101.17 million	($0.09)	-3.28
Adaptive Biotechnologies	$178.96 million	7.19	-$159.49 million	($1.09)	-7.94

X4 Pharmaceuticals has higher earnings, but lower revenue than Adaptive Biotechnologies. Adaptive Biotechnologies is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than X4 Pharmaceuticals, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

This table compares X4 Pharmaceuticals and Adaptive Biotechnologies’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
X4 Pharmaceuticals	N/A	-236.19%	-75.14%
Adaptive Biotechnologies	-89.12%	-64.65%	-26.45%

Summary

Adaptive Biotechnologies beats X4 Pharmaceuticals on 7 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

About X4 Pharmaceuticals

X4 Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a late-stage clinical biopharmaceutical company, focuses on the research, development, and commercialization of novel therapeutics for the treatment of rare diseases. Its lead product candidate is mavorixafor, a small molecule inhibitor of the chemokine receptor C-X-C chemokine receptor type 4 (CXCR4), which is in Phase III clinical trial for the treatment of patients with warts, hypogammaglobulinemia, infections, and myelokathexis syndrome; and Phase II clinical trial to treat congenital, idiopathic, or cyclic neutropenia. The company is also developing X4P-003, a CXCR4 antagonist for the treatment of CXCR4 dependent disorders and primary immunodeficiencies; and X4P-002, a CXCR4 antagonist for the treatment of blood-brain barrier diseases. It has a license agreement with Abbisko Therapeutics Co Ltd. to develop, manufacture, and commercialize mavorixafor in combination with checkpoint inhibitors or other agents in oncology indications. The company is headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts.

About Adaptive Biotechnologies

Adaptive Biotechnologies Corporation, a commercial-stage company, develops an immune medicine platform for the diagnosis and treatment of various diseases. The company offers immunosequencing platform which combines a suite of proprietary chemistry, computational biology, and machine learning to generate clinical immunomics data to decode the adaptive immune system. It also provides clonoSEQ diagnostic test which detects and monitors the remaining number of cancer cells that are present in a patient’s body during and after treatment, known as Minimal Residual Disease (MRD). The company offers products and services for life sciences research, clinical diagnostics, and drug discovery applications. Adaptive Biotechnologies Corporation has strategic collaborations with Genentech, Inc. for the development, manufacture, and commercialization of neoantigen directed T cell therapies for the treatment of a range of cancers; and Microsoft Corporation to develop diagnostic tests for the early detection of various diseases from a single blood test. The company was formerly known as Adaptive TCR Corporation and changed its name to Adaptive Biotechnologies Corporation in December 2011. Adaptive Biotechnologies Corporation was incorporated in 2009 and is headquartered in Seattle, Washington.