Head to Head Survey: Akebia Therapeutics (NASDAQ:AKBA) and Gilead Sciences (NASDAQ:GILD)

Gilead Sciences (NASDAQ:GILD) and Akebia Therapeutics (NASDAQ:AKBA) are both healthcare companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their profitability, institutional ownership, earnings, risk, analyst recommendations, valuation and dividends.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current recommendations and price targets for Gilead Sciences and Akebia Therapeutics, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Gilead Sciences	0	6	23	0	2.79
Akebia Therapeutics	1	2	4	0	2.43

Gilead Sciences presently has a consensus price target of $159.33, suggesting a potential upside of 2.01%. Akebia Therapeutics has a consensus price target of $3.90, suggesting a potential upside of 482.09%. Given Akebia Therapeutics’ higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Akebia Therapeutics is more favorable than Gilead Sciences.

Volatility and Risk

Gilead Sciences has a beta of 0.31, suggesting that its share price is 69% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Akebia Therapeutics has a beta of 0.18, suggesting that its share price is 82% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

83.7% of Gilead Sciences shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 33.9% of Akebia Therapeutics shares are held by institutional investors. 0.3% of Gilead Sciences shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 4.3% of Akebia Therapeutics shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Profitability

This table compares Gilead Sciences and Akebia Therapeutics’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Gilead Sciences	-10.64%	-2.11%	-0.75%
Akebia Therapeutics	-13.54%	-88.88%	-7.74%

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Gilead Sciences and Akebia Therapeutics”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Gilead Sciences	$30.46 billion	6.36	$8.51 billion	($2.67)	-58.50
Akebia Therapeutics	$219.06 million	0.85	-$5.34 million	($0.11)	-6.09

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

Summary

Gilead Sciences beats Akebia Therapeutics on 10 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Gilead Sciences

Gilead Sciences, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company, discovers, develops, and commercializes medicines in the areas of unmet medical need in the United States, Europe, and internationally. The company provides Biktarvy, Genvoya, Descovy, Odefsey, Truvada, Complera/ Eviplera, Stribild, Sunlencs, and Atripla products for the treatment of HIV/AIDS; Veklury, an injection for intravenous use, for the treatment of COVID-19; and Epclusa, Harvoni, Vemlidy, and Viread for the treatment of viral hepatitis. It also offers Yescarta, Tecartus, and Trodelvy products for the treatment of oncology; Letairis, an oral formulation for the treatment of pulmonary arterial hypertension; and AmBisome, a liposomal formulation for the treatment of serious invasive fungal infections. The company has collaboration agreements with Arcus Biosciences, Inc.; Merck Sharp & Dohme Corp.; Pionyr Immunotherapeutics Inc.; Tizona Therapeutics, Inc.; Galapagos NV; Janssen Sciences Ireland Unlimited Company; Japan Tobacco, Inc.; Dragonfly Therapeutics, Inc.; Arcellx, Inc.; Everest Medicines; Merck & Co, Inc.; Tentarix Biotherapeutics Inc.; and Assembly Biosciences, Inc. It also has research collaboration, option, and license agreement with Merus N.V. for the discovery of novel dual tumor-associated antigens (TAA) targeting trispecific antibodies. The company was incorporated in 1987 and is headquartered in Foster City, California.

About Akebia Therapeutics

Akebia Therapeutics, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company, focuses on the development and commercialization of therapeutics for patients with kidney diseases. The company’s lead product investigational product candidate is Vafseo (vadadustat), an oral hypoxia-inducible factor prolyl hydroxylase, which is in Phase III development for the treatment of anemia due to chronic kidney disease (CKD) in dialysis-dependent and non-dialysis dependent patients. It offers Auryxia, a ferric citrate that is used to control the serum phosphorus levels in adult patients with DD-CKD on dialysis; and the treatment of iron deficiency anemia in adult patients with CKD not on dialysis. The company’s product pipeline includes AKB-9090, a drug targeting critical-care indications; and AKB-10108, a drug targeting conditions related to premature birth. It has collaboration agreements with Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma Corporation for the development and commercialization of vadadustat in Japan and other Asian countries, as well as research and license agreement with Janssen Pharmaceutica NV for the development and commercialization of hypoxia-inducible factor prolyl hydroxylase targeted compounds worldwide. Akebia Therapeutics, Inc. was incorporated in 2007 and is headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts.