Critical Review: Nektar Therapeutics (NKTR) and The Competition

Nektar Therapeutics (NASDAQ:NKTR) is one of 844 public companies in the “Biotechnology” industry, but how does it compare to its competitors? We will compare Nektar Therapeutics to related companies based on the strength of its institutional ownership, earnings, dividends, analyst recommendations, valuation, risk and profitability.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings and recommmendations for Nektar Therapeutics and its competitors, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Nektar Therapeutics	1	4	10	1	2.69
Nektar Therapeutics Competitors	9869	15279	45589	1598	2.54

Nektar Therapeutics currently has a consensus price target of $130.67, indicating a potential upside of 239.92%. As a group, “Biotechnology” companies have a potential upside of 120.17%. Given Nektar Therapeutics’ stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities analysts plainly believe Nektar Therapeutics is more favorable than its competitors.

Profitability

This table compares Nektar Therapeutics and its competitors’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Nektar Therapeutics	-287.84%	-37.87%	-25.67%
Nektar Therapeutics Competitors	-12,323.33%	-195.38%	-30.39%

Insider & Institutional Ownership

75.9% of Nektar Therapeutics shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 47.8% of shares of all “Biotechnology” companies are held by institutional investors. 2.5% of Nektar Therapeutics shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 13.1% of shares of all “Biotechnology” companies are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Nektar Therapeutics and its competitors revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
Nektar Therapeutics	$54.59 million	-$164.08 million	-5.74
Nektar Therapeutics Competitors	$739.36 million	$12.29 million	-18.09

Nektar Therapeutics’ competitors have higher revenue and earnings than Nektar Therapeutics. Nektar Therapeutics is trading at a higher price-to-earnings ratio than its competitors, indicating that it is currently more expensive than other companies in its industry.

Risk & Volatility

Nektar Therapeutics has a beta of 1.44, indicating that its stock price is 44% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Nektar Therapeutics’ competitors have a beta of -1.84, indicating that their average stock price is 284% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Nektar Therapeutics beats its competitors on 9 of the 13 factors compared.

Nektar Therapeutics Company Profile

Nektar Therapeutics is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company based in San Francisco, California. It discovers and develops medicines, with a current focus on treatments for autoimmune and inflammatory diseases. Its lead investigational program, rezpegaldesleukin (REZPEG), is designed to stimulate regulatory T cells, which help regulate immune responses. Nektar is studying the candidate in clinical trials for immune-mediated conditions; it is not an approved medicine. Founded in 1990 as Inhale Therapeutic Systems, the company later adopted the Nektar name as it expanded its drug-development work.