Alnylam Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:ALNY) and Sage Therapeutics (NASDAQ:SAGE) are both medical companies, but which is the better business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their valuation, dividends, institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, risk, earnings and profitability.
Volatility & Risk
Alnylam Pharmaceuticals has a beta of 1.47, meaning that its share price is 47% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Sage Therapeutics has a beta of 2.23, meaning that its share price is 123% more volatile than the S&P 500.
Analyst Recommendations
This is a summary of recent ratings and price targets for Alnylam Pharmaceuticals and Sage Therapeutics, as provided by MarketBeat.
| Sell Ratings | Hold Ratings | Buy Ratings | Strong Buy Ratings | Rating Score |
|---|
| Alnylam Pharmaceuticals | 1 | 9 | 9 | 0 | 2.42 |
| Sage Therapeutics | 0 | 10 | 7 | 0 | 2.41 |
Alnylam Pharmaceuticals presently has a consensus price target of $163.4211, indicating a potential upside of 18.96%. Sage Therapeutics has a consensus price target of $80.50, indicating a potential upside of 13.94%. Given Alnylam Pharmaceuticals' stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities research analysts plainly believe Alnylam Pharmaceuticals is more favorable than Sage Therapeutics.
Earnings & Valuation
This table compares Alnylam Pharmaceuticals and Sage Therapeutics' top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.
| Gross Revenue | Price/Sales Ratio | Net Income | Earnings Per Share | Price/Earnings Ratio |
|---|
| Alnylam Pharmaceuticals | $219.75 million | 73.14 | $-886,120,000.00 | ($8.11) | -16.94 |
| Sage Therapeutics | $6.87 million | 600.39 | $-680,240,000.00 | ($13.38) | -5.28 |
Sage Therapeutics has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Alnylam Pharmaceuticals. Alnylam Pharmaceuticals is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Sage Therapeutics, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Profitability
This table compares Alnylam Pharmaceuticals and Sage Therapeutics' net margins, return on equity and return on assets.
| Net Margins | Return on Equity | Return on Assets |
|---|
| Alnylam Pharmaceuticals | -222.19% | -65.96% | -31.38% |
| Sage Therapeutics | -7,706.84% | -63.81% | -56.64% |
Institutional & Insider Ownership
92.4% of Alnylam Pharmaceuticals shares are held by institutional investors. 3.5% of Alnylam Pharmaceuticals shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 4.8% of Sage Therapeutics shares are held by 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.
Summary
Alnylam Pharmaceuticals beats Sage Therapeutics on 8 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.
