Apellis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:APLS) vs. Design Therapeutics (NASDAQ:DSGN) Financial Comparison

Design Therapeutics (NASDAQ:DSGN) and Apellis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:APLS) are both medical companies, but which is the better business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their dividends, profitability, valuation, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, earnings and risk.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current recommendations for Design Therapeutics and Apellis Pharmaceuticals, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Design Therapeutics	0	2	1	0	2.33
Apellis Pharmaceuticals	0	4	10	1	2.80

Design Therapeutics currently has a consensus price target of $7.00, suggesting a potential upside of 24.11%. Apellis Pharmaceuticals has a consensus price target of $72.13, suggesting a potential upside of 84.11%. Given Apellis Pharmaceuticals’ stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Apellis Pharmaceuticals is more favorable than Design Therapeutics.

Profitability

This table compares Design Therapeutics and Apellis Pharmaceuticals’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Design Therapeutics	N/A	-18.48%	-17.76%
Apellis Pharmaceuticals	-52.99%	-138.32%	-39.63%

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Design Therapeutics and Apellis Pharmaceuticals’ gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Design Therapeutics	N/A	N/A	-$66.86 million	($1.05)	-5.37
Apellis Pharmaceuticals	$396.59 million	12.03	-$528.63 million	($3.46)	-11.32

Design Therapeutics has higher earnings, but lower revenue than Apellis Pharmaceuticals. Apellis Pharmaceuticals is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Design Therapeutics, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

56.6% of Design Therapeutics shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 96.3% of Apellis Pharmaceuticals shares are owned by institutional investors. 31.2% of Design Therapeutics shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 6.8% of Apellis Pharmaceuticals shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Risk and Volatility

Design Therapeutics has a beta of 1.82, indicating that its share price is 82% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Apellis Pharmaceuticals has a beta of 0.88, indicating that its share price is 12% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Design Therapeutics beats Apellis Pharmaceuticals on 8 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Design Therapeutics

Design Therapeutics, Inc. a biopharmaceutical company, researches, designs, develops, and commercializes small molecule therapeutic drugs for the treatment of genetic diseases in the United States. The company utilizes its GeneTAC platform to design and develop therapeutic candidates for inherited diseases caused by nucleotide repeat expansion. Its lead product candidates for potentially disease-modifying treatment comprises Friedreich Ataxia, a monogenic, autosomal recessive, progressive multi-system disease that affects organ systems dependent on mitochondrial function that brings to neurological, cardiac, and metabolic dysfunction; Myotonic Dystrophy Type-1, a dominantly-inherited, monogenic progressive neuromuscular disease affecting skeletal muscle, heart, brain, and other organs; Fuchs Endothelial Corneal Dystrophy, a genetic eye disease characterized by bilateral degeneration of corneal endothelial cells and progressive loss of vision; and Huntington's Disease, a dominantly inherited, monogenic neurodegenerative disease characterized by movement, cognitive, and psychiatric disorders. Design Therapeutics, Inc. was incorporated in 2017 and is headquartered in Carlsbad, California.

About Apellis Pharmaceuticals

Apellis Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a commercial-stage biopharmaceutical company, focuses on the discovery, development, and commercialization of therapeutic compounds through the inhibition of the complement system for autoimmune and inflammatory diseases. It offers EMPAVELI for the treatment of paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria, C3 glomerulopathy and immune complex membranoproliferative glomerulonephritis, and hematopoietic stem cell transplantation-associated thrombotic microangiopathy; and SYFOVRE for treating geographic atrophy secondary to age-related macular degeneration and geographic atrophy (GA). The company also develops APL-3007, a small interfering RNA, or siRNA, which is in a Phase 1 clinical trial, as well as an oral complement inhibitor that is in preclinical development. It has a collaboration and license agreement with Swedish Orphan Biovitrum AB (publ) for development and commercialization of pegcetacoplan; and a collaboration with Beam Therapeutics Inc. focused on the use of Beam's base editing technology to discover new treatments for complement-driven diseases. The company was incorporated in 2009 and is based in Waltham, Massachusetts.