Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (IONS) vs Ligand Pharmaceuticals Incorporated (LGND)

Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and Ligand Pharmaceuticals Incorporated are both Biotechnology companies. Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and Ligand Pharmaceuticals Incorporated are of similar size ($6.5B and $6.0B). Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. has negative trailing earnings, so its P/E is not meaningful; Ligand Pharmaceuticals Incorporated trades at 116×. Ligand Pharmaceuticals Incorporated grew revenue faster over the last twelve months: 1.03% against −7.41%. Ligand Pharmaceuticals Incorporated has the higher net margin (20.3% vs −64.7%) and the higher return on invested capital (1.27% vs 0.00%). Across the 18 metrics below, Ligand Pharmaceuticals Incorporated leads on 14 and Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. on 4.

Valuation

Metric IONS LGND Biotechnology median
P/E n/m 115.97 10.26
P/S 7.36 23.62 9.18
P/B 14.62 6.23 2.05
Price to free cash flow n/m 58.00 24.81
EV/EBITDA n/m 109.42 0.65
EV/Sales 7.05 24.72 8.98
Earnings yield (8.90%) 0.86% (34.89%)
Free cash flow yield (8.83%) 1.72% (24.52%)

Profitability

Metric IONS LGND Biotechnology median
Gross margin 98.17% 95.22% 65.16%
Operating margin (68.00%) 9.29% 0.00%
Net margin (64.66%) 20.27% 0.00%
Free cash flow margin (64.93%) 31.43% 0.00%
Return on equity (105.50%) 5.38% (50.12%)
Return on assets (18.90%) 2.77% (45.60%)
Return on invested capital 0.00% 1.27% 0.00%

Growth

Metric IONS LGND Biotechnology median
Revenue growth (TTM) (7.41%) 1.03% 6.26%
EPS growth (last fiscal year) 21.71% 2,886.36% 29.88%
Revenue growth, 5-year CAGR 5.29% 10.39% 9.75%
Net income growth, 5-year CAGR 0.00% 0.00% 0.00%

Health

Metric IONS LGND Biotechnology median
Debt to equity 3.07 0.71 0.00
Current ratio 7.89 1.22 4.89
Net debt to EBITDA 2.39 (4.36) 1.01

Dividend

Metric IONS LGND Biotechnology median
Dividend yield — — 0.41%
Payout ratio — — —

Size

Metric IONS LGND Biotechnology median
Market cap 6.45b 5.98b 172.11m

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