Comparing aTyr Pharma (NASDAQ:ATYR) & uniQure (NASDAQ:QURE)

aTyr Pharma (NASDAQ:ATYR) and uniQure (NASDAQ:QURE) are both small-cap medical companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, valuation, earnings, profitability, dividends, risk and institutional ownership.

Profitability

This table compares aTyr Pharma and uniQure’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
aTyr Pharma	N/A	-93.69%	-68.83%
uniQure	-1,387.98%	-1,010.74%	-33.27%

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares aTyr Pharma and uniQure”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
aTyr Pharma	$190,000.00	342.70	-$64.02 million	($0.83)	-0.80
uniQure	$15.75 million	109.98	-$239.56 million	($4.39)	-6.33

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

Institutional and Insider Ownership

61.7% of aTyr Pharma shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 78.8% of uniQure shares are owned by institutional investors. 3.7% of aTyr Pharma shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 4.8% of uniQure shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Risk & Volatility

aTyr Pharma has a beta of 0.81, indicating that its share price is 19% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, uniQure has a beta of 0.59, indicating that its share price is 41% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and target prices for aTyr Pharma and uniQure, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
aTyr Pharma	1	6	1	0	2.00
uniQure	1	2	10	1	2.79

aTyr Pharma currently has a consensus price target of $23.25, suggesting a potential upside of 3,398.87%. uniQure has a consensus price target of $64.42, suggesting a potential upside of 131.63%. Given aTyr Pharma’s higher probable upside, research analysts plainly believe aTyr Pharma is more favorable than uniQure.

Summary

aTyr Pharma beats uniQure on 8 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About aTyr Pharma

aTyr Pharma, Inc. engages in the discovery and development of medicines based on novel biological pathways. Its product pipeline includes ATYR1923, ATYR2810, NRP2 mAbs, and AARS-1, DARS-1. The company was founded by Paul Schimmel, Xiang-Lei Yang and Bruce Beutler on September 8, 2005 and is headquartered in San Diego, CA.

About uniQure

uniQure N.V. develops treatments for patients suffering from rare and other devastating diseases. It offers HEMGENIX that has completed Phase III HOPE-B pivotal trial for the treatment of hemophilia B. The company also develops AMT-130, a gene therapy that is in Phase I/II clinical study for the treatment of Huntington's disease. In addition, it is developing AMT-162, which is in preclinical trial for the treatment of superoxide dismutase 1- amyotrophic lateral sclerosis; AMT-260 that is in preclinical trial to treat temporal lobe epilepsy; AMT-191, which is in preclinical trial for the treatment of fabry disease; AMT-161 that is in preclinical trial to treat amyotrophic lateral sclerosis caused by mutations; AMT-240, which is in preclinical trial to for the treatment of autosomal dominant Alzheimer's disease; and AMT-210 that is in preclinical trial to treat Parkinson's disease. The company was founded in 1998 and is headquartered in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.