Head-To-Head Comparison: Krystal Biotech (NASDAQ:KRYS) and Relay Therapeutics (NASDAQ:RLAY)

Krystal Biotech (NASDAQ:KRYS) and Relay Therapeutics (NASDAQ:RLAY) are both mid-cap healthcare companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, risk, profitability, analyst recommendations, valuation, earnings and dividends.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

86.3% of Krystal Biotech shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 97.0% of Relay Therapeutics shares are held by institutional investors. 13.1% of Krystal Biotech shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 5.0% of Relay Therapeutics shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings and target prices for Krystal Biotech and Relay Therapeutics, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Krystal Biotech	0	2	10	2	3.00
Relay Therapeutics	1	1	10	2	2.93

Krystal Biotech currently has a consensus target price of $377.20, suggesting a potential upside of 13.75%. Relay Therapeutics has a consensus target price of $25.92, suggesting a potential upside of 44.95%. Given Relay Therapeutics’ higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Relay Therapeutics is more favorable than Krystal Biotech.

Profitability

This table compares Krystal Biotech and Relay Therapeutics’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Krystal Biotech	54.82%	19.34%	17.65%
Relay Therapeutics	N/A	-42.27%	-38.67%

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Krystal Biotech and Relay Therapeutics”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Krystal Biotech	$389.13 million	25.22	$204.83 million	$7.98	41.56
Relay Therapeutics	$15.35 million	255.26	-$276.48 million	($1.57)	-11.39

Krystal Biotech has higher revenue and earnings than Relay Therapeutics. Relay Therapeutics is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Krystal Biotech, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Risk and Volatility

Krystal Biotech has a beta of 0.5, meaning that its share price is 50% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Relay Therapeutics has a beta of 1.72, meaning that its share price is 72% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Krystal Biotech beats Relay Therapeutics on 9 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Krystal Biotech

Krystal Biotech, Inc., a commercial-stage biotechnology company, discovers, develops, and commercializes genetic medicines for patients with rare diseases in the United States. It commercializes VYJUVEK (beremagene geperpavec-svdt, or B-VEC) for the treatment of dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa (DEB). The company also develops KB105, which is in Phase 1/2 clinical trials for treating patients with deficient autosomal recessive congenital ichthyosis; KB104 for treating netherton syndrome; KB407 that is in Phase 1 clinical trials for treating cystic fibrosis; KB707 that is in Phase 1 clinical trials for the treatment of anti-PD-1 relapsed/refractory; KB408, which is in Phase 1 clinical trials for treating Alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency; and KB301 that is in Phase 2 clinical trials for treating aesthetic skin conditions, as well as in open label study with ophthalmic B-VEC for treating for ocular complications of deb. Krystal Biotech, Inc. was founded in 2016 and is headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

About Relay Therapeutics

Relay Therapeutics, Inc. operates as a clinical-stage precision medicines company. It engages in transforming the drug discovery process with an initial focus on enhancing small molecule therapeutic discovery in targeted oncology and genetic disease indications. The company’s lead product candidates include RLY-4008, an oral small molecule inhibitor of fibroblast growth factor receptor 2 (FGFR2), which is in a first-in-human clinical trial for patients with advanced or metastatic FGFR2-altered solid tumors; RLY-2608, a lead mutant-PI3Ka inhibitor program that targets phosphoinostide 3 kinase alpha; and Migoprotafib (GDC-1971), an oral, small molecule, potent and selective inhibitor of the protein tyrosine phosphatase SHP2 that binds and stabilizes Src homology region 2 domain-containing phosphatase-2 (SHP2) as a monotherapy in patients with advanced or metastatic solid tumors. In addition, it has collaboration and license agreements with D. E. Shaw Research, LLC to research certain biological targets through the use of D. E. Shaw Research computational modeling capabilities focused on analysis of protein motion to develop and commercialize compounds and products directed to such targets; and Genentech, Inc. for the development and commercialization of GDC-1971. The company was formerly known as Allostery, Inc. and changed its name to Relay Therapeutics, Inc. in December 2015. Relay Therapeutics, Inc. was incorporated in 2015 and is headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts.