Ascendis Pharma A/S (NASDAQ:ASND) vs. Rigel Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:RIGL) Head-To-Head Review

Ascendis Pharma A/S (NASDAQ:ASND) and Rigel Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:RIGL) are both healthcare companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their profitability, risk, analyst recommendations, earnings, institutional ownership, valuation and dividends.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

66.2% of Rigel Pharmaceuticals shares are owned by institutional investors. 40.0% of Ascendis Pharma A/S shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 10.5% of Rigel Pharmaceuticals shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

This table compares Ascendis Pharma A/S and Rigel Pharmaceuticals’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Ascendis Pharma A/S	70.99%	32.54%	7.71%
Rigel Pharmaceuticals	116.30%	22.95%	17.19%

Volatility and Risk

Ascendis Pharma A/S has a beta of 0.38, indicating that its share price is 62% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Rigel Pharmaceuticals has a beta of 1.19, indicating that its share price is 19% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings and price targets for Ascendis Pharma A/S and Rigel Pharmaceuticals, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Ascendis Pharma A/S	0	1	18	1	3.00
Rigel Pharmaceuticals	1	2	4	0	2.43

Ascendis Pharma A/S currently has a consensus price target of $309.26, suggesting a potential upside of 31.98%. Rigel Pharmaceuticals has a consensus price target of $59.00, suggesting a potential upside of 22.64%. Given Ascendis Pharma A/S’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities analysts clearly believe Ascendis Pharma A/S is more favorable than Rigel Pharmaceuticals.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Ascendis Pharma A/S and Rigel Pharmaceuticals”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Ascendis Pharma A/S	$814.57 million	17.95	-$258.00 million	$12.89	18.18
Rigel Pharmaceuticals	$276.79 million	3.22	$367.02 million	$16.32	2.95

Rigel Pharmaceuticals has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Ascendis Pharma A/S. Rigel Pharmaceuticals is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Ascendis Pharma A/S, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Summary

Ascendis Pharma A/S beats Rigel Pharmaceuticals on 9 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Ascendis Pharma A/S

Ascendis Pharma A/S, a biopharmaceutical company, focuses on developing therapies for unmet medical needs. It offers SKYTROFA for treating patients with growth hormone deficiency (GHD). The company is also developing a pipeline of three independent endocrinology rare disease product candidates in clinical development, as well as focuses on advancing oncology therapeutic candidates. The company was incorporated in 2006 and is headquartered in Hellerup, Denmark.

About Rigel Pharmaceuticals

Rigel Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a biotechnology company, engages in discovering, developing, and providing therapies that enhance the lives of patients with hematologic disorders and cancer. The company’s commercialized products include Tavalisse, an oral spleen tyrosine kinase inhibitor for the treatment of adult patients with chronic immune thrombocytopenia; Rezlidhia, a non-intensive monotherapy for the treatment of adult patients with relapsed or refractory (R/R) acute myeloid leukemia (AML) with a susceptible isocitrate dehydrogenase-1 (IDH1) mutation as detected by an FDA-approved test; and GAVRETO, a once daily, small molecule, oral, kinase inhibitor for the treatment of adult patients with metastatic rearranged during transfection (RET) fusion-positive non-small cell lung cancer, as well as for the treatment of adult and pediatric patients 12 years of age and older with advanced or metastatic RET fusion-positive thyroid cancer. It also develops R289, an oral IRAK1/4 Inhibitor, which is in Phase 1b clinical trials for the treatment of hematology-oncology, autoimmune, and inflammatory diseases; and a receptor-interacting serine/threonine-protein kinase 1 (RIPK1) inhibitor program in clinical development with partner Eli Lilly and Company. In addition, the company has product candidates in clinical development with partners BerGenBio ASA and Daiichi Sankyo. The company has strategic development collaboration with The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center for the development of REZLIDHIA (Olutasidenib) in acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and other hematologic cancers. The company was incorporated in 1996 and is headquartered in South San Francisco, California.