NewLink Genetics Corporation (NASDAQ:NLNK) and Merus N.V. (NASDAQ:MRUS), both competing one another are Biotechnology companies. We will contrast their risk, analyst recommendations, profitability, institutional ownership, dividends, earnings and valuation.

Valuation & Earnings

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
NewLink Genetics Corporation	12.47M	5.05	53.59M	-1.53	0.00
Merus N.V.	N/A	0.00	N/A	-2.03	0.00

Demonstrates NewLink Genetics Corporation and Merus N.V. earnings per share, gross revenue and valuation.

Profitability

Table 2 demonstrates the return on equity, net margins and return on assets of NewLink Genetics Corporation and Merus N.V.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
NewLink Genetics Corporation	-429.75%	-52.1%	-44.2%
Merus N.V.	0.00%	-46%	-17.1%

Liquidity

NewLink Genetics Corporation’s Current Ratio is 13.3 while its Quick Ratio is 13.3. On the competitive side is, Merus N.V. which has a 5.3 Current Ratio and a 5.3 Quick Ratio. NewLink Genetics Corporation is better positioned to pay off short and long-term obligations compared to Merus N.V.

Analyst Recommendations

Recommendations and Ratings for NewLink Genetics Corporation and Merus N.V. can be find in next table.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Rating Score
NewLink Genetics Corporation	1	1	0	2.50
Merus N.V.	0	1	3	2.75

NewLink Genetics Corporation’s average target price is $4.5, while its potential upside is 166.27%. Competitively the average target price of Merus N.V. is $22.25, which is potential 51.15% upside. The results from earlier shows that analysts opinion suggest that NewLink Genetics Corporation seems more appealing than Merus N.V.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

The shares of both NewLink Genetics Corporation and Merus N.V. are owned by institutional investors at 34.8% and 68.9% respectively. Insiders held roughly 1% of NewLink Genetics Corporation’s shares. Competitively, 31.46% are Merus N.V.’s share held by insiders.

Performance

In this table we show the Weekly, Monthly, Quarterly, Half Yearly, Yearly and YTD Performance of both pretenders.

	Performance (W)	Performance (M)	Performance (Q)	Performance (HY)	Performance (Y)	Performance (YTD)
NewLink Genetics Corporation	11.04%	21.48%	-4.74%	-41.42%	-74.11%	19.08%
Merus N.V.	15.68%	6.03%	0.71%	-35.51%	-28.39%	-8.29%

For the past year NewLink Genetics Corporation had bullish trend while Merus N.V. had bearish trend.

Summary

NewLink Genetics Corporation beats on 6 of the 11 factors Merus N.V.

NewLink Genetics Corporation, a biopharmaceutical company, focuses on discovering, developing, and commercializing immunotherapeutic products for the treatment of cancer. Its portfolio includes biologic product candidates based on its HyperAcute cellular immunotherapy technology, which is designed to stimulate the human immune system to attack cancer cells; and small-molecule product candidates that are focused on breaking the immune system's tolerance to cancer by inhibiting the indoleamine-2, 3-dioxygenase pathway and the tryptophan-2, 3-dioxygenase pathway. The company is developing IDO pathway inhibitors comprising indoximod that is in multiple Phase I and Phase II clinical trials for patients with melanoma, pancreatic cancer, malignant brain tumors, metastatic breast cancer, acute myeloid leukemia, prostate cancer, and non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC); and GDC-0919 and atezolizumab (MPDL3280A) that is in Phase Ib clinical trials for patients with locally advanced or metastatic solid tumors. Its clinical development products include NLG2101 for metastatic breast cancer; NLG2102 for refractory malignant brain tumors; NLG2103 for advanced melanoma; NLG2104 for metastatic pancreatic cancer; NLG2105 for pediatric patients with refractory malignant brain tumors; and NLG2106 for acute myelogenous leukemia. The companyÂ’s HyperAcute cellular immunotherapy product candidates under clinical development include tergenpumatucel-L, is being investigated in Phase Ib/II clinical trial for patients with advanced NSCLC; and dorgenmeltucel-L, is being investigated in a Phase II clinical trial for patients with advanced melanoma. Its infectious disease program includes replication-competent recombinant vesicular stomatitis virus, a vaccine technology to treat Ebola and Marburg viruses. The company has license and collaboration agreements with Genentech, Inc. and Merck, Sharpe and Dohme Corp. NewLink Genetics Corporation was founded in 1999 and is headquartered in Ames, Iowa.

Merus N.V., a clinical-stage immuno-oncology company, engages in developing bispecific antibody therapeutics. Its lead bispecific antibody candidate is MCLA-128, which is in Phase I/II clinical trials in Europe for the treatment of various solid tumors, including breast, gastric, and ovarian cancers. The company also develops MCLA-117, a bispecific antibody candidate that is expected to commence a Phase I/II clinical trial for the treatment of patients with acute myeloid leukemia, as well as for the treatment of myelodysplastic syndrome in pre-clinical studies, as well as developing MCLA-158, a bispecific antibody candidate, which is designed to bind to cancer stem cells for the potential treatment of colorectal cancer. Its pre-clinical bispecific antibody candidates include MCLA-134 and MCLA-145, as well as other early research projects. The company has a strategic collaboration with Incyte and ONO Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. to develop bispecific antibody candidates based on Biclonics technology platform. Merus N.V. was founded in 2003 and is headquartered in Utrecht, the Netherlands.