Head-To-Head Analysis: Madrigal Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:MDGL) vs. Corcept Therapeutics (NASDAQ:CORT)

Madrigal Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:MDGL) and Corcept Therapeutics (NASDAQ:CORT) are both mid-cap medical companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their valuation, institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, profitability, earnings, dividends and risk.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

98.5% of Madrigal Pharmaceuticals shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 93.6% of Corcept Therapeutics shares are owned by institutional investors. 21.5% of Madrigal Pharmaceuticals shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 20.5% of Corcept Therapeutics shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings and price targets for Madrigal Pharmaceuticals and Corcept Therapeutics, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Madrigal Pharmaceuticals	1	3	12	1	2.76
Corcept Therapeutics	2	2	4	0	2.25

Madrigal Pharmaceuticals currently has a consensus price target of $685.31, indicating a potential upside of 58.20%. Corcept Therapeutics has a consensus price target of $77.17, indicating a potential upside of 127.36%. Given Corcept Therapeutics’ higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Corcept Therapeutics is more favorable than Madrigal Pharmaceuticals.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Madrigal Pharmaceuticals and Corcept Therapeutics”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Madrigal Pharmaceuticals	$958.40 million	10.37	-$288.28 million	($12.87)	-33.66
Corcept Therapeutics	$761.41 million	4.74	$99.65 million	$0.82	41.39

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

Profitability

This table compares Madrigal Pharmaceuticals and Corcept Therapeutics’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Madrigal Pharmaceuticals	-30.08%	-43.76%	-24.88%
Corcept Therapeutics	12.96%	15.19%	11.93%

Risk and Volatility

Madrigal Pharmaceuticals has a beta of -0.97, meaning that its stock price is 197% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Corcept Therapeutics has a beta of 0.29, meaning that its stock price is 71% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Corcept Therapeutics beats Madrigal Pharmaceuticals on 8 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Madrigal Pharmaceuticals

Madrigal Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, focuses on the development of therapeutics for the treatment of non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) in the United States. Its lead product candidate is resmetirom, a liver-directed thyroid hormone receptor beta agonist, which is in Phase 3 clinical trials for treating NASH. The company is headquartered in West Conshohocken, Pennsylvania.

About Corcept Therapeutics

Corcept Therapeutics Incorporated engages in discovery and development of drugs for the treatment of severe endocrinologic, oncologic, metabolic, and neurologic disorders in the United States. It offers Korlym tablets medication for the treatment of hyperglycemia secondary to hypercortisolism in adult patients with endogenous cushing's syndrome; and who have type 2 diabetes mellitus or glucose intolerance and have failed surgery or are not candidates for surgery. The company is also developing relacorilant, which is in phase III clinical trial for the treatment of cushing's syndrome; treatment for adrenal cancer and cortisol excess which is in phase 1b clinical trial; treatment for prostate cancer which is in phase II clinical trial; and nab-paclitaxel in combination with relacorilant, which is in phase III clinical trial to treat platinum-resistant ovarian tumors. In addition, it develops dazucorilant, which is in phase II clinical trial for the treatment of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis; miricorilant, which is in phase IIb trial for the treatment of nonalcoholic steatohepatitis; and treatment for antipsychotic induced weight gain that is in phase I trial. The company was incorporated in 1998 and is headquartered in Menlo Park, California.