Head to Head Survey: CARGO Therapeutics (NASDAQ:CRGX) and Cardiff Oncology (NASDAQ:CRDF)

Cardiff Oncology (NASDAQ:CRDF) and CARGO Therapeutics (NASDAQ:CRGX) are both small-cap medical companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their dividends, earnings, risk, institutional ownership, profitability, analyst recommendations and valuation.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

16.3% of Cardiff Oncology shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 93.2% of CARGO Therapeutics shares are held by institutional investors. 7.8% of Cardiff Oncology shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 1.4% of CARGO Therapeutics shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current ratings and price targets for Cardiff Oncology and CARGO Therapeutics, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Cardiff Oncology	0	0	2	0	3.00
CARGO Therapeutics	0	0	7	0	3.00

Cardiff Oncology presently has a consensus target price of $10.50, suggesting a potential upside of 360.53%. CARGO Therapeutics has a consensus target price of $30.83, suggesting a potential upside of 82.45%. Given Cardiff Oncology’s higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Cardiff Oncology is more favorable than CARGO Therapeutics.

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Cardiff Oncology	-6,594.92%	-54.54%	-47.11%
CARGO Therapeutics	N/A	N/A	N/A

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Cardiff Oncology and CARGO Therapeutics’ top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Cardiff Oncology	$490,000.00	208.08	-$41.44 million	($0.90)	-2.53
CARGO Therapeutics	N/A	N/A	-$98.15 million	N/A	N/A

Cardiff Oncology has higher revenue and earnings than CARGO Therapeutics.

Summary

CARGO Therapeutics beats Cardiff Oncology on 5 of the 9 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Cardiff Oncology

Cardiff Oncology, Inc., a clinical-stage biotechnology company, develops novel therapies to treat various cancers in California. Its lead drug candidate is onvansertib, an oral selective Polo-like Kinase 1 Inhibitor to treatment a range of solid tumor cancers and KRAS/NRAS-mutated metastatic colorectal and metastatic pancreatic cancer, as well as investigator-initiated trials in triple negative breast cancer and small cell lung cancer; and TROV-054 is a Phase 1b/2 for FOLFIRI and bevacizumab. The company primarily serves pharmaceutical manufacturers. The company was formerly known as Trovagene, Inc. and changed its name to Cardiff Oncology, Inc. in May 2012. Cardiff Oncology, Inc. was incorporated in 1999 and is headquartered in San Diego, California.

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.