Terns Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:TERN) vs. Oculis (NASDAQ:OCS) Head-To-Head Contrast

Oculis (NASDAQ:OCS) and Terns Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:TERN) are both small-cap medical companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, dividends, profitability, valuation, earnings, institutional ownership and risk.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current ratings and recommmendations for Oculis and Terns Pharmaceuticals, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Oculis	0	0	5	0	3.00
Terns Pharmaceuticals	0	1	4	0	2.80

Oculis currently has a consensus price target of $29.20, indicating a potential upside of 108.13%. Terns Pharmaceuticals has a consensus price target of $15.90, indicating a potential upside of 114.57%. Given Terns Pharmaceuticals’ higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Terns Pharmaceuticals is more favorable than Oculis.

Profitability

This table compares Oculis and Terns Pharmaceuticals’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Oculis	-7,679.05%	-61.33%	-49.91%
Terns Pharmaceuticals	N/A	-39.58%	-37.69%

Volatility & Risk

Oculis has a beta of 0.3, suggesting that its share price is 70% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Terns Pharmaceuticals has a beta of -0.36, suggesting that its share price is 136% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Oculis and Terns Pharmaceuticals”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Oculis	$980,000.00	579.87	-$98.92 million	($1.78)	-7.88
Terns Pharmaceuticals	$1.00 million	479.26	-$90.21 million	($1.26)	-5.88

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

Insider and Institutional Ownership

22.3% of Oculis shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 98.3% of Terns Pharmaceuticals shares are owned by institutional investors. 15.1% of Terns Pharmaceuticals shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Summary

Terns Pharmaceuticals beats Oculis on 10 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Oculis

Oculis Holding AG, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, develops drug candidates to treat ophthalmic diseases. The company's lead product candidate is OCS-01, a topical dexamethasone optireach formulation, which is in Phase 3 clinical trials for the treatment of diabetic macular edema; OCS-02, a topical biologic candidate that is in Phase 2b clinical trials for the treatment for dry eye disease; and OCS-05, a disease modifying neuroprotective agent for neurological damage with indications for glaucoma, dry age-related macular degeneration and diabetic retinopathy, and acute optic neuritis. The company is based in Zug, Switzerland.

About Terns Pharmaceuticals

Terns Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, develops small-molecule product candidates for the treatment of oncology, metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis (MASH), and obesity. The company develops TERN-701, an allosteric BCR-ABL tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) that is in phase 1 clinical trial for chronic myeloid leukemia (CML), a form of cancer that starts in bone marrow. It also develops TERN-501, a thyroid hormone receptor beta agonist with enhanced liver distribution and metabolic stability that is in Phase IIa clinical trial for the treatment of MASH; and TERN-601, a small-molecule Glucagon-Like Peptide-1 receptor agonist program that is intended to orally be administered for obesity. The company was incorporated in 2016 and is headquartered in Foster City, California.