Financial Contrast: Alnylam Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:ALNY) vs. Emergent Biosolutions (NYSE:EBS)

Emergent Biosolutions (NYSE:EBS) and Alnylam Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:ALNY) are both healthcare companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, dividends, valuation, analyst recommendations, profitability, earnings and risk.

Profitability

This table compares Emergent Biosolutions and Alnylam Pharmaceuticals’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Emergent Biosolutions	-22.95%	16.35%	6.17%
Alnylam Pharmaceuticals	15.26%	84.93%	14.30%

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Emergent Biosolutions and Alnylam Pharmaceuticals”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Emergent Biosolutions	$742.90 million	0.47	$52.60 million	($3.55)	-1.92
Alnylam Pharmaceuticals	$4.80 billion	6.67	$313.75 million	$5.38	44.53

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

Insider and Institutional Ownership

78.4% of Emergent Biosolutions shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 93.0% of Alnylam Pharmaceuticals shares are held by institutional investors. 6.0% of Emergent Biosolutions shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.9% of Alnylam Pharmaceuticals shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current ratings for Emergent Biosolutions and Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Emergent Biosolutions	2	1	3	0	2.17
Alnylam Pharmaceuticals	0	5	16	2	2.87

Emergent Biosolutions presently has a consensus price target of $10.00, indicating a potential upside of 46.97%. Alnylam Pharmaceuticals has a consensus price target of $367.20, indicating a potential upside of 53.28%. Given Alnylam Pharmaceuticals’ stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Alnylam Pharmaceuticals is more favorable than Emergent Biosolutions.

Risk and Volatility

Emergent Biosolutions has a beta of 2.34, meaning that its share price is 134% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Alnylam Pharmaceuticals has a beta of 0.31, meaning that its share price is 69% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Alnylam Pharmaceuticals beats Emergent Biosolutions on 13 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Emergent Biosolutions

Emergent BioSolutions Inc., a life sciences company, provides preparedness and response solutions for accidental, deliberate, and naturally occurring public health threats in the United States. The company offers NARCAN Nasal Spray for the emergency treatment of known or suspected opioid overdose; Vaxchora vaccine for the prevention of cholera; Vivotif vaccine for oral administration for the prevention of typhoid fever; Anthrasil for the treatment of inhalational anthrax; BioThrax, an anthrax vaccine; CYFENDUS for post-exposure prophylaxis of disease following suspected or confirmed exposure to Bacillus anthracis; and Raxibacumab injection for the treatment and prophylaxis of inhalational anthrax. It also provides ACAM2000, a smallpox vaccine; CNJ-016 to address complications from smallpox vaccination; TEMBEXA for the treatment of smallpox disease caused by variola virus in adult and pediatric patients; BAT for the treatment of symptomatic botulism; Ebanga for the treatment of Ebola; Reactive Skin Decontamination Lotion Kit to remove or neutralize chemical warfare agents from the skin; Trobigard, a atropine sulfate obidoxime chloride auto-injector. In addition, the company is developing CGRD-001 for the treatment of poisoning by organophosphorus nerve agents or organophosphorus compounds; EBS-LASV to prevent Lassa fever; EBS-MARV to prevent Marburg virus disease; EBS-SUDV to prevent Sudan virus disease; Pan-Ebola mAbs for the treatment of ebola virus; SIAN Antidote for initial treatment of certain or suspected acute cyanide poisoning; UniFlu for immunity against influenza A and B viruses; and WEVEE-VLP for equine encephalitis virus infections. Further, it provides contract development and manufacturing services comprising drug substance and product manufacturing, and packaging, as well as technology transfer, process, and analytical development services. The company was incorporated in 1998 and is headquartered in Gaithersburg, Maryland.

About Alnylam Pharmaceuticals

Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company, focuses on discovering, developing, and commercializing novel therapeutics based on ribonucleic acid interference. Its marketed products include ONPATTRO (patisiran) for the treatment of the polyneuropathy of hereditary transthyretin-mediated amyloidosis in adults; AMVUTTRA for the treatment of hATTR amyloidosis with polyneuropathy in adults; GIVLAARI for the treatment of adults with acute hepatic porphyria; and OXLUMO for the treatment of primary hyperoxaluria type 1. In addition, the company develops patisiran for the treatment of transthyretin amyloidosis, or ATTR amyloidosis, with cardiomyopathy; cemdisiran to treat complement-mediated diseases; Belcesiran for the treatment of alpha-1 liver disease; Elebsiran to treat chronic HBV infection; Zilebesiran to treat hypertension; ALN-APP to treat Alzheimer's disease and cerebral amyloid angiopathy; and ALN-HSD to treat NASH. Further, it offers Fitusiran for the treatment of hemophilia, Inclisiran to treat hypercholesterolemia, lumasiran for the treatment of advanced PH1, and vutrisiran for the treatment of ATTR amyloidosis, which is in phase 3 clinical trial. Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Inc. has strategic collaborations with Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc. to discover, develop, and commercialize RNAi therapeutics for a range of diseases by addressing therapeutic targets expressed in the eye and CNS; and Roche to develop pharmaceutical products containing zilebesiran. It also has license and collaboration agreements with Novartis AG; Vir Biotechnology, Inc.; Dicerna Pharmaceuticals, Inc.; Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc.; and PeptiDream, Inc. The company was founded in 2002 and is headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts.