Comparing Astellas Pharma (OTCMKTS:ALPMY) and Harmony Biosciences (NASDAQ:HRMY)

Harmony Biosciences (NASDAQ:HRMY) and Astellas Pharma (OTCMKTS:ALPMY) are both healthcare companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their valuation, risk, dividends, analyst recommendations, profitability, institutional ownership and earnings.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and price targets for Harmony Biosciences and Astellas Pharma, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Harmony Biosciences	1	4	7	1	2.62
Astellas Pharma	0	3	0	1	2.50

Harmony Biosciences presently has a consensus price target of $48.00, suggesting a potential upside of 42.89%. Given Harmony Biosciences’ stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, research analysts clearly believe Harmony Biosciences is more favorable than Astellas Pharma.

Profitability

This table compares Harmony Biosciences and Astellas Pharma’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Harmony Biosciences	18.05%	18.55%	13.24%
Astellas Pharma	16.18%	26.13%	13.32%

Risk & Volatility

Harmony Biosciences has a beta of 1, meaning that its share price has a similar volatility profile to the S&P 500.Comparatively, Astellas Pharma has a beta of 0.06, meaning that its share price is 94% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Harmony Biosciences and Astellas Pharma”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Harmony Biosciences	$868.45 million	2.25	$158.69 million	$3.02	11.12
Astellas Pharma	$14.21 billion	2.09	$1.83 billion	$1.36	12.04

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

Institutional & Insider Ownership

86.2% of Harmony Biosciences shares are owned by institutional investors. 11.0% of Harmony Biosciences shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Summary

Harmony Biosciences beats Astellas Pharma on 9 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Harmony Biosciences

Harmony Biosciences is a biopharmaceutical company focused on developing and commercializing treatments for people living with rare neurological diseases. The company’s work centers on therapies intended to address significant unmet medical needs. Its lead product, WAKIX (pitolisant), is approved in the United States to treat excessive daytime sleepiness or cataplexy in adults and pediatric patients aged 6 years and older with narcolepsy. Harmony launched WAKIX in the United States in 2019. Founded in 2017 and headquartered in Plymouth Meeting, Pennsylvania, Harmony primarily serves the U.S. market.

About Astellas Pharma

Astellas Pharma Inc. is a Japan-based pharmaceutical company that researches, develops, manufactures and markets prescription medicines. The company was formed in 2005 through the merger of Yamanouchi Pharmaceutical and Fujisawa Pharmaceutical, and is headquartered in Tokyo. Astellas develops treatments across areas including oncology, urology, immunology and women’s health. Its medicines include Xtandi (enzalutamide), used to treat certain forms of prostate cancer, and Prograf (tacrolimus), an immunosuppressant used in organ transplantation.