Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) versus Incyte (NASDAQ:INCY) Head to Head Contrast

Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) and Incyte (NASDAQ:INCY) are both large-cap healthcare companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their earnings, valuation, risk, dividends, institutional ownership, profitability and analyst recommendations.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

76.5% of Amgen shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 97.0% of Incyte shares are held by institutional investors. 0.9% of Amgen shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 16.2% of Incyte shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Risk and Volatility

Amgen has a beta of 0.41, suggesting that its stock price is 59% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Incyte has a beta of 0.74, suggesting that its stock price is 26% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current recommendations and price targets for Amgen and Incyte, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Amgen	3	16	10	1	2.30
Incyte	0	13	11	1	2.52

Amgen currently has a consensus target price of $387.93, suggesting a potential downside of 8.96%. Incyte has a consensus target price of $128.20, suggesting a potential upside of 14.91%. Given Incyte’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Incyte is more favorable than Amgen.

Profitability

This table compares Amgen and Incyte’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Amgen	22.95%	124.14%	13.18%
Incyte	27.71%	29.93%	22.88%

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Amgen and Incyte”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Amgen	$36.75 billion	6.27	$7.71 billion	$16.09	26.48
Incyte	$5.14 billion	4.40	$1.29 billion	$7.85	14.21

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

Summary

Incyte beats Amgen on 8 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Amgen

Amgen Inc. discovers, develops, manufactures, and delivers human therapeutics worldwide. The company's principal products include Enbrel to treat plaque psoriasis, rheumatoid arthritis, and psoriatic arthritis; Otezla for the treatment of adult patients with plaque psoriasis, psoriatic arthritis, and oral ulcers associated with Behçet's disease; Prolia to treat postmenopausal women with osteoporosis; XGEVA for skeletal-related events prevention; Repatha, which reduces the risks of myocardial infarction, stroke, and coronary revascularization; Nplate for the treatment of patients with immune thrombocytopenia; KYPROLIS to treat patients with relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma; Aranesp to treat a lower-than-normal number of red blood cells and anemia; EVENITY for the treatment of osteoporosis in postmenopausal for men and women; Vectibix to treat patients with wild-type RAS metastatic colorectal cancer; BLINCYTO for the treatment of patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia; TEPEZZA to treat thyroid eye disease; and KRYSTEXXA for the treatment of chronic refractory gout. It also markets other products, including Neulasta, MVASI, AMJEVITA/AMGEVITA, TEZSPIRE, Parsabiv, Aimovig, LUMAKRAS/LUMYKRAS, EPOGEN, KANJINTI, TAVNEOS, RAVICTI, UPLIZNA and PROCYSBI. The company serves healthcare providers, including physicians or their clinics, dialysis centers, hospitals, and pharmacies. It distributes its products through pharmaceutical wholesale distributors, as well as direct-to-consumer channels. The company has collaboration agreements with AstraZeneca plc for the development and commercialization of TEZSPIRE; Novartis Pharma AG to develop and commercialize Aimovig; UCB for the development and commercialization of EVENITY; Kyowa Kirin Co., Ltd. for rocatinlimab development and commercialization; and BeiGene, Ltd. for oncology products expansion and development. Amgen Inc. was incorporated in 1980 and is headquartered in Thousand Oaks, California.

About Incyte

Incyte Corporation, a biopharmaceutical company, engages in the discovery, development, and commercialization of therapeutics for hematology/oncology, and inflammation and autoimmunity areas in the United States and internationally. The company offers JAKAFI (ruxolitinib) for treatment of intermediate or high-risk myelofibrosis, polycythemia vera, and steroid-refractory acute graft-versus-host disease; MONJUVI (tafasitamab-cxix)/MINJUVI (tafasitamab) for relapsed or refractory diffuse large B-cell lymphoma; PEMAZYRE (pemigatinib), a fibroblast growth factor receptor kinase inhibitor that act as oncogenic drivers in liquid and solid tumor types; ICLUSIG (ponatinib) to treat chronic myeloid leukemia and Philadelphia-chromosome positive acute lymphoblastic leukemia; and ZYNYZ (retifanlimab-dlwr) to treat adults with metastatic or recurrent locally advanced Merkel cell carcinoma, as well as OPZELURA cream for treatment of atopic dermatitis. Its clinical stage products include retifanlimab under Phase 3 clinical trials for squamous cell carcinoma of the anal canal and non-small cell lung cancer; axatilimab, an anti-CSF-1R monoclonal antibody under Phase 2 that is being developed as a therapy for patients with chronic GVHD; INCA033989 to inhibit oncogenesis; INCB160058, which is being developed as a disease-modifying therapeutic; and INCB99280 and INCB99318 for the treatment solid tumors. The company also develops INCB123667, INCA32459, and INCA33890, as well as Ruxolitinib cream, Povorcitinib, and INCA034460. It has collaboration out-license agreements with Novartis and Lilly; in-license agreements with Agenus, Merus, MacroGenics, and Syndax; and collaboration and license agreement with China Medical System Holdings Limited for the development and commercialization of povorcitinib. The company sells its products to specialty, retail, and hospital pharmacies, distributors, and wholesalers. The company was formerly known as Incyte Genomics Inc and changed its name to Incyte Corporation in March 2003. Incyte Corporation was incorporated in 1991 and is headquartered in Wilmington, Delaware.