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 better investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their valuation, analyst recommendations, media sentiment, profitability, dividends, earnings, risk and institutional ownership.
Gilead Sciences has a beta of 0.29, indicating that its share price is 71% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Ligand Pharmaceuticals has a beta of 0.83, indicating that its share price is 17% 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 endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.
Gilead Sciences has a net margin of 20.76% compared to Ligand Pharmaceuticals' net margin of -73.07%. Gilead Sciences' return on equity of 51.93% beat Ligand Pharmaceuticals' return on equity.
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.
Gilead Sciences currently has a consensus price target of $110.55, suggesting a potential downside of 1.06%. Ligand Pharmaceuticals has a consensus price target of $146.14, suggesting a potential upside of 29.84%. Given Ligand Pharmaceuticals' stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Ligand Pharmaceuticals is more favorable than Gilead Sciences.
In the previous week, Gilead Sciences had 46 more articles in the media than Ligand Pharmaceuticals. MarketBeat recorded 52 mentions for Gilead Sciences and 6 mentions for Ligand Pharmaceuticals. Gilead Sciences' average media sentiment score of 1.27 beat Ligand Pharmaceuticals' score of 0.90 indicating that Gilead Sciences is being referred to more favorably in the media.
Summary
Gilead Sciences beats Ligand Pharmaceuticals on 11 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.
Skip ChartMedia 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.
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This page (NASDAQ:GILD) was last updated on 7/1/2025 by MarketBeat.com Staff