Biodesix (NASDAQ:BDSX) and Personalis (NASDAQ:PSNL) Critical Analysis

Biodesix (NASDAQ:BDSX) and Personalis (NASDAQ:PSNL) are both small-cap medical companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, risk, analyst recommendations, earnings, valuation, profitability and dividends.

Profitability

This table compares Biodesix and Personalis’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Biodesix	-106.23%	-29,379.44%	-58.96%
Personalis	-147.38%	-61.42%	-41.05%

Institutional & Insider Ownership

21.0% of Biodesix shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 61.9% of Personalis shares are owned by institutional investors. 63.8% of Biodesix shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 4.1% of Personalis shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Risk and Volatility

Biodesix has a beta of 1.13, meaning that its share price is 13% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Personalis has a beta of 1.95, meaning that its share price is 95% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations and price targets for Biodesix and Personalis, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Biodesix	0	0	3	0	3.00
Personalis	0	0	2	0	3.00

Biodesix currently has a consensus target price of $3.50, indicating a potential upside of 180.00%. Personalis has a consensus target price of $5.50, indicating a potential upside of 343.55%. Given Personalis’ higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Personalis is more favorable than Biodesix.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Biodesix and Personalis’ revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Biodesix	$49.09 million	2.47	-$52.15 million	($0.65)	-1.92
Personalis	$73.48 million	0.85	-$108.30 million	($2.25)	-0.55

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

Summary

Personalis beats Biodesix on 7 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Biodesix

Biodesix, Inc. operates as a data-driven diagnostic solutions company in the United States. The company offers blood-based lung tests, including Nodify XL2 and Nodify CDT tests, together marketed as part of Nodify Lung Nodule Risk Assessment testing strategy, to assess the risk of lung cancer and help in identifying the appropriate treatment pathway and help physicians in reclassifying risk of malignancy in patients with suspicious lung nodules. It also provides GeneStrat ddPCR and NGS, and VeriStrat tests, which are used in the diagnosis of lung cancer to measure the presence of mutations in the tumor and the state of the patient's immune system to establish the patient's prognosis and help guide treatment decisions. In addition, the company, through its partnership with Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc., provides Bio-Rad SARS-CoV-2 ddPCR, a COVID-19 Test under Biodesix WorkSafe testing program; and Platelia SARS-CoV-2 Total Ab test, an antibody test for detecting a B-cell immune response to SARS-CoV-2 that indicate recent or prior infection. Further, it offers diagnostic and clinical research, as well as clinical trial testing services to biopharmaceutical companies; and discovers, develops, and commercializes companion diagnostics. The company was formerly known as Elston Technologies, Inc. and as changed to Biodesix, Inc. in 2006. Biodesix, Inc. was incorporated in 2005 and is headquartered in Louisville, Colorado.

About Personalis

Personalis, Inc. develops and markets advanced cancer genomic tests and analytics primarily in the United States, Europe, and the Asia-Pacific. Its tests and analytics are used by pharmaceutical companies for translational research, biomarker discovery, and development of personalized cancer therapies, as well as advanced tests are used by physicians to detect cancer recurrence, monitor cancer evolution, and uncover insights for therapy selection. The company offers NeXT Personal, a tumor-informed liquid biopsy test for detection of minimal residual disease (MRD) and recurrence in cancer; and ImmunoID NeXT, a tissue-based test that combines whole exome (DNA) and whole transcriptome (RNA) sequencing data with advanced analytics to provide a multi-dimensional view of the tumor and the tumor microenvironment from a single sample. It also provides NeXT Personal Dx, a tumor-informed liquid biopsy test for detection of MRD and recurrence in cancer; and NeXT Dx, a comprehensive tumor profiling test that unlocks the entire exome (DNA) and transcriptome (RNA) with matched tumor-normal analysis. In addition, the company performs whole exome sequencing (WES) of cancer tissue and matched blood samples for diagnostic companies as an input to their products; and whole genome sequencing (WGS) on human samples for research projects, such as population sequencing initiatives, as well as offers sequencing and data analysis services to support population sequencing initiatives. Its customers include pharmaceutical companies, biopharmaceutical companies, diagnostics companies, universities, non-profits, government entities, and patients. The company was incorporated in 2011 and is headquartered in Fremont, California.