Critical Survey: WAVE Life Sciences (NASDAQ:WVE) versus Regeneron Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:REGN)

Regeneron Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:REGN) and WAVE Life Sciences (NASDAQ:WVE) are both healthcare companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, analyst recommendations, dividends, institutional ownership, earnings, valuation and profitability.

Volatility & Risk

Regeneron Pharmaceuticals has a beta of 0.2, indicating that its share price is 80% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, WAVE Life Sciences has a beta of -1.3, indicating that its share price is 230% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Regeneron Pharmaceuticals and WAVE Life Sciences”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Regeneron Pharmaceuticals	$14.34 billion	5.66	$4.50 billion	$40.46	19.48
WAVE Life Sciences	$42.73 million	17.43	-$204.38 million	($1.09)	-3.47

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

Profitability

This table compares Regeneron Pharmaceuticals and WAVE Life Sciences’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Regeneron Pharmaceuticals	27.86%	13.47%	10.34%
WAVE Life Sciences	-309.73%	-50.36%	-40.06%

Institutional and Insider Ownership

83.3% of Regeneron Pharmaceuticals shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 89.7% of WAVE Life Sciences shares are owned by institutional investors. 7.0% of Regeneron Pharmaceuticals shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 24.3% of WAVE Life Sciences shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current recommendations for Regeneron Pharmaceuticals and WAVE Life Sciences, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Regeneron Pharmaceuticals	0	10	14	0	2.58
WAVE Life Sciences	1	2	14	0	2.76

Regeneron Pharmaceuticals presently has a consensus price target of $802.18, suggesting a potential upside of 1.79%. WAVE Life Sciences has a consensus price target of $22.31, suggesting a potential upside of 490.28%. Given WAVE Life Sciences’ stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe WAVE Life Sciences is more favorable than Regeneron Pharmaceuticals.

Summary

Regeneron Pharmaceuticals beats WAVE Life Sciences on 8 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Regeneron Pharmaceuticals

Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc. discovers, invents, develops, manufactures, and commercializes medicines for treating various diseases worldwide. The company's products include EYLEA injection to treat wet age-related macular degeneration and diabetic macular edema; myopic choroidal neovascularization; diabetic retinopathy; neovascular glaucoma; and retinopathy of prematurity. It also provides Dupixent injection to treat atopic dermatitis and asthma in adults and pediatrics; Libtayo injection to treat metastatic or locally advanced cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma; Praluent injection for heterozygous familial hypercholesterolemia or clinical atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease in adults; REGEN-COV for covid-19; and Kevzara solution for treating rheumatoid arthritis in adults. In addition, the company offers Inmazeb injection for infection caused by Zaire ebolavirus; ARCALYST injection for cryopyrin-associated periodic syndromes, including familial cold auto-inflammatory syndrome and muckle-wells syndrome; and ZALTRAP injection for intravenous infusion to treat metastatic colorectal cancer; and develops product candidates for treating patients with eye, allergic and inflammatory, cardiovascular and metabolic, infectious, and rare diseases; and cancer, pain, and hematologic conditions. It has collaboration with Mammoth Biosciences, Inc. to research, develop and commercialize in vivo CRISPR-based gene editing therapies for multiple tissues and cell types. The company was incorporated in 1988 and is headquartered in Tarrytown, New York.

About WAVE Life Sciences

Wave Life Sciences Ltd., a clinical-stage biotechnology company, designs, develops, and commercializes ribonucleic acid (RNA) medicines through PRISM, a discovery and drug development platform. The company's RNA medicines platform, PRISM, combines multiple modalities, chemistry innovation, and deep insights into human genetics to deliver scientific breakthroughs that treat both rare and prevalent disorders. It is developing WVE-006, a RNA editing oligonucleotide for the treatment of alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency; siRNA clinical candidate for the treatment of obesity and other metabolic disorders; WVE-N531, a exon skipping oligonucleotide for the treatment of duchenne muscular dystrophy; and WVE-003, an antisense silencing oligonucleotide for the treatment of Huntington's disease (HD). The company has collaboration agreements with GlaxoSmithKline for the research, development, and commercialization of oligonucleotide therapeutics; Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited for the research, development, and commercialization of oligonucleotide therapeutics for disorders of the Central Nervous System; and Asuragen, Inc. for the development and potential commercialization of companion diagnostics for investigational allele-selective therapeutic programs targeting HD. Wave Life Sciences Ltd. was incorporated in 2012 and is based in Singapore.