Reviewing Gilead Sciences (NASDAQ:GILD) and HilleVax (NASDAQ:HLVX)

Gilead Sciences (NASDAQ:GILD) and HilleVax (NASDAQ:HLVX) are both medical companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their dividends, institutional ownership, profitability, valuation, analyst recommendations, risk and earnings.

Volatility and Risk

Gilead Sciences has a beta of 0.18, meaning that its stock price is 82% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, HilleVax has a beta of 0.8, meaning that its stock price is 20% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Gilead Sciences and HilleVax”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Gilead Sciences	$27.81 billion	3.79	$5.67 billion	$0.36	234.97
HilleVax	N/A	N/A	-$123.57 million	($3.30)	-0.54

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

Profitability

This table compares Gilead Sciences and HilleVax’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Gilead Sciences	3.79%	29.34%	10.10%
HilleVax	N/A	-62.01%	-47.99%

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent recommendations and price targets for Gilead Sciences and HilleVax, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Gilead Sciences	0	12	7	1	2.45
HilleVax	0	6	0	0	2.00

Gilead Sciences presently has a consensus price target of $82.12, indicating a potential downside of 2.92%. HilleVax has a consensus price target of $9.20, indicating a potential upside of 419.77%. Given HilleVax’s higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe HilleVax is more favorable than Gilead Sciences.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

83.7% of Gilead Sciences shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 86.4% of HilleVax shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.2% of Gilead Sciences shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 71.1% of HilleVax shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Summary

Gilead Sciences beats HilleVax 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 HilleVax

HilleVax, Inc., a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, focuses on developing and commercializing novel vaccines in the United States. It develops HIL-214, a virus-like particle-based vaccine candidate for the prevention of moderate-to-severe acute gastroenteritis caused by norovirus infection. The company was formerly known as MokshaCo, Inc. and changed its name to HilleVax, Inc. in February 2021. HilleVax, Inc. was founded in 2019 and is headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts.