Reviewing Grifols (NASDAQ:GRFS) and AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV)

AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) and Grifols (NASDAQ:GRFS) are both healthcare companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their profitability, risk, earnings, dividends, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership and valuation.

Profitability

This table compares AbbVie and Grifols’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
AbbVie	9.80%	-422.07%	14.34%
Grifols	5.54%	6.21%	2.39%

Dividends

AbbVie pays an annual dividend of $6.92 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.4%. Grifols pays an annual dividend of $0.09 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.1%. AbbVie pays out 195.5% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Grifols pays out 47.4% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. AbbVie has increased its dividend for 53 consecutive years. AbbVie is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

70.2% of AbbVie shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.1% of AbbVie shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 0.2% of Grifols 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.

Risk & Volatility

AbbVie has a beta of 0.24, indicating that its stock price is 76% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Grifols has a beta of 0.7, indicating that its stock price is 30% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares AbbVie and Grifols”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
AbbVie	$61.16 billion	8.29	$4.23 billion	$3.54	81.02
Grifols	$8.51 billion	0.64	$454.82 million	$0.19	42.03

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

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and target prices for AbbVie and Grifols, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
AbbVie	0	6	23	1	2.83
Grifols	1	2	0	0	1.67

AbbVie presently has a consensus price target of $279.86, suggesting a potential downside of 2.43%. Grifols has a consensus price target of $9.00, suggesting a potential upside of 12.70%. Given Grifols’ higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Grifols is more favorable than AbbVie.

Summary

AbbVie beats Grifols on 13 of the 18 factors compared between the two stocks.

About AbbVie

AbbVie Inc. discovers, develops, manufactures, and sells pharmaceuticals worldwide. The company offers Humira, an injection for autoimmune and intestinal Behçet's diseases, and pyoderma gangrenosum; Skyrizi to treat moderate to severe plaque psoriasis, psoriatic disease, and Crohn's disease; Rinvoq to treat rheumatoid and psoriatic arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis, atopic dermatitis, axial spondyloarthropathy, ulcerative colitis, and Crohn's disease; Imbruvica for the treatment of adult patients with blood cancers; Epkinly to treat lymphoma; Elahere to treat cancer; and Venclexta/Venclyxto to treat blood cancers. It also provides facial injectables, plastics and regenerative medicine, body contouring, and skincare products; botox therapeutic; Vraylar for depressive disorder; Duopa and Duodopa to treat advanced Parkinson's disease; Ubrelvy for the acute treatment of migraine in adults; and Qulipta for episodic and chronic migraine. In addition, the company offers Ozurdex for eye diseases; Lumigan/Ganfort and Alphagan/Combigan for the reduction of elevated intraocular pressure in patients with open angle glaucoma or ocular hypertension; Restasis to increase tear production; and other eye care products. Further, it provides Mavyret/Maviret to treat chronic hepatitis C virus genotype 1-6 infection; Creon, a pancreatic enzyme therapy; Lupron to treat advanced prostate cancer, endometriosis and central precocious puberty, and patients with anemia caused by uterine fibroids; Linzess/Constella to treat irritable bowel syndrome with constipation and chronic idiopathic constipation; and Synthroid for hypothyroidism. It has collaborations with Calico Life Sciences LLC; REGENXBIO Inc.; Janssen Biotech, Inc.; and Genentech, Inc., as well as collaboration with Tentarix Biotherapeutics, LP to develop conditionally-active and multi-specific biologics for oncology and immunology. The company was incorporated in 2012 and is headquartered in North Chicago, Illinois.

About Grifols

Grifols, S.A. operates as a plasma therapeutic company in Spain, the United States, Canada, and internationally. The company provides immunoglobulin to treat immunodeficiencies; albumin used to restore circulatory volume and protein loss in pathophysiological conditions, such as liver cirrhosis, cardiocirculatory failure, trauma and severe burns; alpha-1 proteinase inhibitor, a plasma protein, used to treat a genetic disease known as alpha-1; factorVIII/von Willerbrand factor and factor IX, clotting factors for the treatment of hemophilia A and von Willebrand’s disease, as well as hemophilia B; antithrombin III to treat hereditary antithrombin deficiency; Fostamatinib, a spleen tyrosine kinase inhibitor; combination of fibrinogen and enzyme thrombin that acts as a biological sealant to control surgical bleeding; and plasma exchange with albumin used to treat Alzheimer’s disease. It markets diagnostic testing equipment, reagents, and other equipment; biological products; manufactures and sells plasma to third parties; and involves in research activities, as well as markets pharmaceutical products for hospital pharmacies. In addition, the company offers Yimmugo PID, an immunology drug; and Yimmugo ITP, a hematology drug. Further, it develops Xembify Pre-filled syringes, FlexBag, and Prolastin vials; Xembify Biweekly dosing, Prolastin-C, Fostamatinib2, and VISTASEAL which are in Phase IV development stage; Xembify, Albumin 20% and 5%, Fibrinogen, Trimodulin, Cytotec pregnancy, and AMBAR-Next in Phase III development stage; and AKST4290 that is in Phase II clinical development. Additionally, it offers recIG, Alpha-1 AT in non-cystic fibrosis bronchiectasis, ATIII, GIGA 2339, GIGA564, and OSIG. It has collaboration agreements with Canadian Blood Services for the processing of other plasma-derived products and with GIANT; and GigaGen to develop recombinant polyclonal immunoglobulin therapies. The company was founded in 1909 and is headquartered in Barcelona, Spain.