Head to Head Survey: ACADIA Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:ACAD) & Amarin (NASDAQ:AMRN)

ACADIA Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:ACAD) and Amarin (NASDAQ:AMRN) are both medical companies, but which is the superior stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their earnings, profitability, analyst recommendations, dividends, risk, valuation and institutional ownership.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations for ACADIA Pharmaceuticals and Amarin, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
ACADIA Pharmaceuticals	1	3	11	0	2.67
Amarin	2	1	0	0	1.33

ACADIA Pharmaceuticals presently has a consensus price target of $31.63, suggesting a potential upside of 49.95%. Amarin has a consensus price target of $12.00, suggesting a potential downside of 21.26%. Given ACADIA Pharmaceuticals’ stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, research analysts plainly believe ACADIA Pharmaceuticals is more favorable than Amarin.

Risk and Volatility

ACADIA Pharmaceuticals has a beta of 0.84, indicating that its share price is 16% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Amarin has a beta of 0.82, indicating that its share price is 18% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares ACADIA Pharmaceuticals and Amarin’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
ACADIA Pharmaceuticals	34.30%	9.61%	7.07%
Amarin	-15.51%	-2.99%	-2.07%

Insider and Institutional Ownership

96.7% of ACADIA Pharmaceuticals shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 22.3% of Amarin shares are held by institutional investors. 26.2% of ACADIA Pharmaceuticals shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 4.2% of Amarin shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares ACADIA Pharmaceuticals and Amarin”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
ACADIA Pharmaceuticals	$1.07 billion	3.37	$391.00 million	$2.20	9.59
Amarin	$213.65 million	1.50	-$38.80 million	($0.65)	-23.45

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

Summary

ACADIA Pharmaceuticals beats Amarin on 14 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About ACADIA Pharmaceuticals

ACADIA Pharmaceuticals Inc., a biopharmaceutical company, focuses on the development and commercialization innovative medicines that address unmet medical needs in central nervous system (CNS) disorders and rare diseases in the United States. The company offers NUPLAZID (pimavanserin) for the treatment of hallucinations and delusions associated with Parkinson's disease psychosis; and DAYBUE, a novel synthetic analog of the amino-terminal tripeptide of insulin-like growth factor 1 for treatment of Rett Syndrome. It also develops Pimavanserin that is in Phase III ADVANCE-2 study to treat the negative symptoms of schizophrenia; ACP-101 whixh is in Phase III for the treatment of hyperphagia in Prader-Willi syndrome; ACP-204 which is in Phase II for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease psychosis; ACP-2591 that is in Phase I for Rett syndrome and Fragile X syndrome; preclinical antisense oligonucleotide programs; and other programs for neuropsychiatric symptoms. It has a license agreement with Neuren Pharmaceuticals Limited to develop and commercialize trofinetide for Rett syndrome and other indications; and a license and collaboration agreement with Stoke Therapeutics, Inc. to discover, develop and commercialize novel RNA-based medicines for the potential treatment of severe and rare genetic neurodevelopmental diseases of the CNS. The company was formerly known as Receptor Technologies, Inc. and changed its name ACADIA Pharmaceuticals Inc. in 1997. ACADIA Pharmaceuticals Inc. was incorporated in 1993 and is headquartered in San Diego, California.

About Amarin

Amarin Corporation plc, a pharmaceutical company, engages in the development and commercialization of therapeutics for the treatment of cardiovascular diseases in the United States, European countries, Canada, Lebanon, and the United Arab Emirates. The company offers VASCEPA, a prescription-only omega-3 fatty acid product, used as an adjunct to diet for reducing triglyceride levels in adult patients with severe hypertriglyceridemia. It sells its products principally to wholesalers and specialty pharmacy providers. The company has a collaboration with Mochida Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. to develop and commercialize drug products and indications based on the active pharmaceutical ingredient in Vascepa. The company was formerly known as Ethical Holdings plc and changed its name to Amarin Corporation plc in 1999. Amarin Corporation plc was incorporated in 1989 and is headquartered in Dublin, Ireland.