Head to Head Review: Repligen (NASDAQ:RGEN) and CARGO Therapeutics (NASDAQ:CRGX)

Repligen (NASDAQ:RGEN) and CARGO Therapeutics (NASDAQ:CRGX) are both medical companies, but which is the superior stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, dividends, risk, earnings, profitability and valuation.

Profitability

This table compares Repligen and CARGO Therapeutics’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Repligen	-4.64%	4.21%	2.94%
CARGO Therapeutics	N/A	-38.16%	-33.94%

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Repligen and CARGO Therapeutics”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Repligen	$650.43 million	12.17	$35.60 million	($0.45)	-313.16
CARGO Therapeutics	N/A	N/A	-$98.15 million	($3.72)	-1.14

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

Insider & Institutional Ownership

97.6% of Repligen shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 93.2% of CARGO Therapeutics shares are held by institutional investors. 1.2% of Repligen shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 1.4% of CARGO Therapeutics shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent ratings and price targets for Repligen and CARGO Therapeutics, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Repligen	0	5	9	0	2.64
CARGO Therapeutics	1	6	0	0	1.86

Repligen currently has a consensus target price of $173.25, suggesting a potential upside of 22.94%. CARGO Therapeutics has a consensus target price of $15.00, suggesting a potential upside of 254.61%. Given CARGO Therapeutics’ higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe CARGO Therapeutics is more favorable than Repligen.

Risk & Volatility

Repligen has a beta of 1.27, indicating that its stock price is 27% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, CARGO Therapeutics has a beta of 0.47, indicating that its stock price is 53% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Repligen beats CARGO Therapeutics on 9 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Repligen

Repligen Corporation develops and commercializes bioprocessing technologies and systems for use in biological drug manufacturing process in North America, Europe, the Asia Pacific, and internationally. It offers Protein A ligands that are the binding components of Protein A affinity chromatography resins; and cell culture growth factor products. The company’s chromatography products include OPUS pre-packed chromatography columns, which are used in the purification of biologics; and OPUS smaller-scale columns that are used in the high throughput process development screening, viral clearance validation studies, and scale down validation of chromatography processes. It also offers ELISA test kits; and chromatography resins under the CaptivA brand. In addition, the company provides filtration products, such as XCell Alternating Tangential Flow systems that are filtration devices used in upstream perfusion and cell culture processing; TangenX flat sheet cassettes, which are used in downstream biologic drug concentration, buffer exchange, and formulation processes; KrosFlo tangential flow filtration and tangential flow depth filtration systems; Spectra/Por laboratory and process dialysis products, and ProConnex TFDF flow paths. Further, it provides process analytics products, such as slope spectroscopy systems under the SoloVPE, FlowVPE, and FlowVPX brands. The company sells its products to life sciences, biopharmaceutical, and diagnostics companies; laboratory researchers; and contract manufacturing organizations. Repligen Corporation has collaboration agreements with Navigo Proteins GmbH to develop multiple affinity ligands. The company was incorporated in 1981 and is headquartered in Waltham, Massachusetts.

About CARGO Therapeutics

CARGO Therapeutics, Inc., a clinical-stage biotechnology company, develops chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapies for cancer patients. The company's lead program is CRG-022, an autologous CD22 CAR T-cell product candidate designed to address resistance mechanisms by targeting CD22, an alternate tumor antigen that is expressed in B-cell malignancies. It also develops CRG-023, a tri-specific CAR T product candidate that targets tumor cells with three B-cell antigen targets. The company was formerly known as Syncopation Life Sciences, Inc. and changed its name to CARGO Therapeutics, Inc. in September 2022. CARGO Therapeutics, Inc. was incorporated in 2019 and is headquartered in San Mateo, California.