Autolus Therapeutics (NASDAQ:AUTL) and Ironwood Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:IRWD) Critical Contrast

Ironwood Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:IRWD) and Autolus Therapeutics (NASDAQ:AUTL) are both small-cap healthcare companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their valuation, earnings, profitability, dividends, analyst recommendations, risk and institutional ownership.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent ratings and recommmendations for Ironwood Pharmaceuticals and Autolus Therapeutics, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Ironwood Pharmaceuticals	0	4	2	1	2.57
Autolus Therapeutics	1	1	4	2	2.88

Ironwood Pharmaceuticals presently has a consensus price target of $6.23, indicating a potential upside of 27.99%. Autolus Therapeutics has a consensus price target of $10.00, indicating a potential upside of 709.72%. Given Autolus Therapeutics’ stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Autolus Therapeutics is more favorable than Ironwood Pharmaceuticals.

Profitability

This table compares Ironwood Pharmaceuticals and Autolus Therapeutics’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Ironwood Pharmaceuticals	37.38%	-81.40%	42.69%
Autolus Therapeutics	-238.66%	-178.66%	-49.34%

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Ironwood Pharmaceuticals and Autolus Therapeutics”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Ironwood Pharmaceuticals	$296.15 million	2.72	$24.02 million	$0.90	5.41
Autolus Therapeutics	$117.39 million	2.80	-$287.53 million	($1.06)	-1.17

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

Volatility & Risk

Ironwood Pharmaceuticals has a beta of 0.25, suggesting that its share price is 75% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Autolus Therapeutics has a beta of 2.32, suggesting that its share price is 132% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

72.8% of Autolus Therapeutics shares are owned by institutional investors. 9.3% of Ironwood Pharmaceuticals shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 25.7% of Autolus Therapeutics shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Summary

Autolus Therapeutics beats Ironwood Pharmaceuticals on 8 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Ironwood Pharmaceuticals

Ironwood Pharmaceuticals is a biotechnology company focused on developing and commercializing treatments for gastrointestinal diseases. Founded in 1998, the company is headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts. Its principal product is LINZESS (linaclotide), a prescription medicine for adults with irritable bowel syndrome with constipation and chronic idiopathic constipation. Ironwood and AbbVie collaborate on the product’s U.S. commercialization, while licensing partners make linaclotide available in other markets under regional brand names.

About Autolus Therapeutics

Autolus Therapeutics plc is a biopharmaceutical company focused on developing and commercializing engineered T-cell therapies for cancer. Its treatments are designed to program a patient’s T cells to recognize and attack specific cancer cells, using the company’s proprietary cell-engineering technology. The company’s lead therapy, obecabtagene autoleucel (obe-cel), is marketed as Aucel and is approved in the United States and European Union for certain adults with relapsed or refractory B-cell precursor acute lymphoblastic leukemia.