Alector, Inc. (ALEC) vs Adherex Technologies Inc. (FENC)

Alector, Inc. and Adherex Technologies Inc. are both Biotechnology companies. Alector, Inc. and Adherex Technologies Inc. are of similar size ($329.3M and $309.9M). Adherex Technologies Inc. has negative trailing earnings, so its P/E is not meaningful; Alector, Inc. trades at 6.6×. Alector, Inc. grew revenue faster over the last twelve months: 151.2% against 77.8%. Alector, Inc. has the higher net margin (23.9% vs −5.49%) and the higher return on invested capital (0.00% vs −58.9%). Across the 16 metrics below, Alector, Inc. leads on 13 and Adherex Technologies Inc. on 3.

Valuation

Metric ALEC FENC Biotechnology median
P/E 6.57 n/m 10.60
P/S 1.49 5.77 9.40
P/B 2.22 8.05 2.13
Price to free cash flow n/m n/m 25.18
EV/EBITDA n/m n/m 0.66
EV/Sales 0.80 5.38 9.02
Earnings yield 15.22% (1.25%) (32.88%)
Free cash flow yield (58.00%) (0.60%) (23.13%)

Profitability

Metric ALEC FENC Biotechnology median
Gross margin 100.00% 93.73% 68.51%
Operating margin 20.16% (1.90%) 0.00%
Net margin 23.87% (5.49%) 0.00%
Free cash flow margin (86.40%) (3.44%) 0.00%
Return on equity 47.52% (18.58%) (51.96%)
Return on assets 16.53% (5.39%) (46.06%)
Return on invested capital 0.00% (58.89%) 0.00%

Growth

Metric ALEC FENC Biotechnology median
Revenue growth (TTM) 151.23% 77.83% 6.76%
EPS growth (last fiscal year) (13.01%) (2,087.50%) 29.88%
Revenue growth, 5-year CAGR (0.05%) — 9.75%
Net income growth, 5-year CAGR 0.00% 0.00% 0.00%

Health

Metric ALEC FENC Biotechnology median
Debt to equity 0.00 0.00 0.00
Current ratio 4.10 5.85 4.97
Net debt to EBITDA 1.61 6.02 1.01

Dividend

Metric ALEC FENC Biotechnology median
Dividend yield — — 0.41%
Payout ratio — — —

Size

Metric ALEC FENC Biotechnology median
Market cap 309.86m 329.29m 161.82m

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