GILD vs. LGND, MRNA, REGN, VIR, VRTX, ABBV, MRK, PFE, AMGN, and ALNY
Should you be buying Gilead Sciences stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of Gilead Sciences include Ligand Pharmaceuticals (LGND), Moderna (MRNA), Regeneron Pharmaceuticals (REGN), Vir Biotechnology (VIR), Vertex Pharmaceuticals (VRTX), AbbVie (ABBV), Merck & Co., Inc. (MRK), Pfizer (PFE), Amgen (AMGN), and Alnylam Pharmaceuticals (ALNY). These companies are all part of the "medical" sector.
Gilead Sciences vs. Its Competitors
Gilead Sciences (NASDAQ:GILD) and Ligand Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:LGND) are both medical companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their dividends, profitability, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, earnings, valuation, risk and media sentiment.
In the previous week, Gilead Sciences had 38 more articles in the media than Ligand Pharmaceuticals. MarketBeat recorded 43 mentions for Gilead Sciences and 5 mentions for Ligand Pharmaceuticals. Ligand Pharmaceuticals' average media sentiment score of 1.73 beat Gilead Sciences' score of 1.43 indicating that Ligand Pharmaceuticals is being referred to more favorably in the news media.
Gilead Sciences has a net margin of 21.86% compared to Ligand Pharmaceuticals' net margin of -40.44%. Gilead Sciences' return on equity of 50.99% beat Ligand Pharmaceuticals' return on equity.
Gilead Sciences presently has a consensus price target of $115.39, suggesting a potential upside of 0.73%. Ligand Pharmaceuticals has a consensus price target of $176.50, suggesting a potential upside of 6.49%. Given Ligand Pharmaceuticals' stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Ligand Pharmaceuticals is more favorable than Gilead Sciences.
Gilead Sciences has a beta of 0.36, indicating that its stock price is 64% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Ligand Pharmaceuticals has a beta of 0.96, indicating that its stock price is 4% less volatile than the S&P 500.
83.7% of Gilead Sciences shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 91.3% of Ligand Pharmaceuticals shares are held by institutional investors. 0.3% of Gilead Sciences shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 7.0% of Ligand Pharmaceuticals shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.
Gilead Sciences has higher revenue and earnings than Ligand Pharmaceuticals. Ligand Pharmaceuticals is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Gilead Sciences, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Summary
Gilead Sciences beats Ligand Pharmaceuticals on 10 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.
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New MarketBeat Followers Over Time
This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding GILD and its top 5 competitors to their watchlist. Each company is represented with a line over a 90 day period.
Media Sentiment Over Time
This chart shows the average media sentiment of NASDAQ and its competitors over the past 90 days as caculated by MarketBeat. The averaged score is equivalent to the following: Very Negative Sentiment <= -1.5, Negative Sentiment > -1.5 and <= -0.5, Neutral Sentiment > -0.5 and < 0.5, Positive Sentiment >= 0.5 and < 1.5, and Very Positive Sentiment >= 1.5.
Gilead Sciences Competitors List
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This page (NASDAQ:GILD) was last updated on 9/15/2025 by MarketBeat.com Staff
