Financial Review: Vaxcyte (NASDAQ:PCVX) versus Gilead Sciences (NASDAQ:GILD)

Vaxcyte (NASDAQ:PCVX) and Gilead Sciences (NASDAQ:GILD) are both large-cap medical companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their earnings, profitability, dividends, analyst recommendations, valuation, risk and institutional ownership.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current recommendations and price targets for Vaxcyte and Gilead Sciences, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Vaxcyte	0	0	8	0	3.00
Gilead Sciences	0	11	15	3	2.72

Vaxcyte currently has a consensus target price of $127.71, indicating a potential upside of 54.86%. Gilead Sciences has a consensus target price of $102.08, indicating a potential downside of 3.01%. Given Vaxcyte’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Vaxcyte is more favorable than Gilead Sciences.

Risk and Volatility

Vaxcyte has a beta of 0.98, suggesting that its share price is 2% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Gilead Sciences has a beta of 0.18, suggesting that its share price is 82% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Vaxcyte and Gilead Sciences”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Vaxcyte	N/A	N/A	-$402.27 million	($4.60)	-17.93
Gilead Sciences	$27.12 billion	4.84	$5.67 billion	$0.09	1,169.44

Gilead Sciences has higher revenue and earnings than Vaxcyte. Vaxcyte 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 Vaxcyte and Gilead Sciences’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Vaxcyte	N/A	-23.53%	-22.20%
Gilead Sciences	0.45%	29.00%	9.83%

Institutional & Insider Ownership

96.8% of Vaxcyte shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 83.7% of Gilead Sciences shares are owned by institutional investors. 3.1% of Vaxcyte shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.2% of Gilead Sciences shares are owned 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

Gilead Sciences beats Vaxcyte on 9 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Vaxcyte

Vaxcyte, Inc., a clinical-stage biotechnology vaccine company, develops novel protein vaccines to prevent or treat bacterial infectious diseases. Its lead vaccine candidate is VAX-24, a 24-valent investigational pneumococcal conjugate vaccine for the prevention of invasive pneumococcal disease. The company also develops VAX-31 to protect against emerging strains and to help address antibiotic resistance; VAX-A1, a novel conjugate vaccine candidate to prevent disease caused by Group A Streptococcus; VAX-PG, a novel protein vaccine candidate targeting keystone pathogen responsible for periodontitis; and VAX-GI to prevent Shigella, a bacterial illness. The company was formerly known as SutroVax, Inc. and changed its name to Vaxcyte, Inc. in May 2020. Vaxcyte, Inc. was incorporated in 2013 and is headquartered in San Carlos, California.

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.