Critical Survey: ProKidney (NASDAQ:PROK) versus Ginkgo Bioworks (NYSE:DNA)

Ginkgo Bioworks (NYSE:DNA) and ProKidney (NASDAQ:PROK) are both small-cap medical companies, but which is the better business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their earnings, institutional ownership, dividends, profitability, analyst recommendations, risk and valuation.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Ginkgo Bioworks and ProKidney’s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Ginkgo Bioworks	$251.46 million	2.87	-$892.87 million	($0.44)	-0.74
ProKidney	N/A	N/A	-$35.47 million	($0.57)	-3.96

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

Insider & Institutional Ownership

78.6% of Ginkgo Bioworks shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 51.6% of ProKidney shares are owned by institutional investors. 15.1% of Ginkgo Bioworks shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 41.5% of ProKidney shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current recommendations and price targets for Ginkgo Bioworks and ProKidney, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Ginkgo Bioworks	3	2	1	0	1.67
ProKidney	0	2	2	0	2.50

Ginkgo Bioworks presently has a consensus price target of $1.56, indicating a potential upside of 378.67%. ProKidney has a consensus price target of $7.25, indicating a potential upside of 215.22%. Given Ginkgo Bioworks’ higher possible upside, research analysts plainly believe Ginkgo Bioworks is more favorable than ProKidney.

Volatility & Risk

Ginkgo Bioworks has a beta of 1.14, indicating that its share price is 14% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, ProKidney has a beta of 1.1, indicating that its share price is 10% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Ginkgo Bioworks and ProKidney’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Ginkgo Bioworks	-409.11%	-56.09%	-35.89%
ProKidney	N/A	N/A	-8.09%

Summary

ProKidney beats Ginkgo Bioworks on 7 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Ginkgo Bioworks

Ginkgo Bioworks Holdings, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, develops platform for cell programming in the United States. Its platform is used to program cells to enable biological production of products, such as novel therapeutics, food ingredients, and chemicals derived from petroleum. It serves pharma and biotech, agriculture, industrial and environment, food and nutrition, consumer and technology, and government and defense industries. Ginkgo Bioworks Holdings, Inc. was founded in 2008 and is headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts.

About ProKidney

ProKidney Corp., a clinical-stage biotechnology company, provides transformative proprietary cell therapy platform for treating various chronic kidney diseases in the United States. The company's lead product is Renal Autologous Cell Therapy (REACT), an autologous homologous cell admixture, which has completed Phase I clinical trial for REACT in patients with congenital anomalies of the Kidney and Urinary Tract (CAKUT), as well as in Phase III and Phase II clinical trials for the treatment of moderate to severe diabetic kidney disease. ProKidney Corp. founded in 2015 and is headquartered in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.