Ionis Pharmaceuticals (IONS) Competitors

Ionis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:IONS) and Alkermes (NASDAQ:ALKS) are both mid-cap medical companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their community ranking, earnings, dividends, institutional ownership, profitability, valuation, analyst recommendations, media sentiment and risk.

Is IONS or ALKS more profitable?

Alkermes has a net margin of 7.04% compared to Ionis Pharmaceuticals' net margin of -48.81%. Alkermes' return on equity of 2.33% beat Ionis Pharmaceuticals' return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Ionis Pharmaceuticals	-48.81%	-59.17%	-11.40%
Alkermes	7.04%	2.33%	1.27%

Does the MarketBeat Community believe in IONS or ALKS?

Alkermes received 6 more outperform votes than Ionis Pharmaceuticals when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 70.70% of users gave Alkermes an outperform vote while only 60.38% of users gave Ionis Pharmaceuticals an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Ionis Pharmaceuticals	Outperform Votes 660 60.38%	Underperform Votes 433 39.62%
Alkermes	Outperform Votes 666 70.70%	Underperform Votes 276 29.30%

Which has better earnings and valuation, IONS or ALKS?

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

Company	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Ionis Pharmaceuticals	$587M	11.41	-$269.72M	-$2.17	-21.53
Alkermes	$1.11B	4.25	-$158.27M	$0.57	49.81

Do analysts recommend IONS or ALKS?

Ionis Pharmaceuticals currently has a consensus target price of $48.10, suggesting a potential upside of 2.98%. Alkermes has a consensus target price of $33.33, suggesting a potential upside of 17.41%. Given Alkermes' stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Alkermes is more favorable than Ionis Pharmaceuticals.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Ionis Pharmaceuticals	1 Sell rating(s)	3 Hold rating(s)	5 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.44
Alkermes	0 Sell rating(s)	3 Hold rating(s)	3 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.50

Does the media refer more to IONS or ALKS?

In the previous week, Ionis Pharmaceuticals had 20 more articles in the media than Alkermes. MarketBeat recorded 22 mentions for Ionis Pharmaceuticals and 2 mentions for Alkermes. Alkermes' average media sentiment score of 0.94 beat Ionis Pharmaceuticals' score of 0.71 indicating that Alkermes is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Ionis Pharmaceuticals	9 Very Positive mention(s)	4 Positive mention(s)	2 Neutral mention(s)	2 Negative mention(s)	1 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Alkermes	1 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	0 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Which has more volatility and risk, IONS or ALKS?

Ionis Pharmaceuticals has a beta of 0.51, indicating that its stock price is 49% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Alkermes has a beta of 0.6, indicating that its stock price is 40% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Do institutionals & insiders hold more shares of IONS or ALKS?

93.9% of Ionis Pharmaceuticals shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 95.2% of Alkermes shares are held by institutional investors. 2.7% of Ionis Pharmaceuticals shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 4.8% of Alkermes shares are held by company 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

Alkermes beats Ionis Pharmaceuticals on 15 of the 18 factors compared between the two stocks.