Reviewing Qiagen (NYSE:QGEN) and Pacific Biosciences of California (NASDAQ:PACB)

Pacific Biosciences of California (NASDAQ:PACB) and Qiagen (NYSE:QGEN) are both healthcare companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their profitability, dividends, institutional ownership, risk, valuation, analyst recommendations and earnings.

Profitability

This table compares Pacific Biosciences of California and Qiagen’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Pacific Biosciences of California	-80.35%	-571.06%	-18.82%
Qiagen	19.16%	14.40%	8.40%

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent recommendations and price targets for Pacific Biosciences of California and Qiagen, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Pacific Biosciences of California	2	2	1	0	1.80
Qiagen	1	8	4	1	2.36

Pacific Biosciences of California presently has a consensus price target of $1.83, indicating a potential upside of 42.12%. Qiagen has a consensus price target of $43.34, indicating a potential upside of 3.37%. Given Pacific Biosciences of California’s higher possible upside, research analysts plainly believe Pacific Biosciences of California is more favorable than Qiagen.

Risk and Volatility

Pacific Biosciences of California has a beta of 2.31, suggesting that its share price is 131% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Qiagen has a beta of 0.63, suggesting that its share price is 37% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Pacific Biosciences of California and Qiagen”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Pacific Biosciences of California	$160.01 million	2.50	-$546.38 million	($0.43)	-3.00
Qiagen	$2.09 billion	4.13	$424.88 million	$1.91	21.95

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

Institutional and Insider Ownership

70.0% of Qiagen shares are owned by institutional investors. 3.7% of Pacific Biosciences of California shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 9.0% of Qiagen shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Summary

Qiagen beats Pacific Biosciences of California on 12 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Pacific Biosciences of California

Pacific Biosciences of California, Inc. designs, develops, and manufactures sequencing solution to resolve genetically complex problems. The company provides sequencing systems; consumable products, including single molecule real-time (SMRT) technology; long-red sequencing; and various reagent kits designed for specific workflow, such as preparation kit to convert DNA into SMRTbell double-stranded DNA library formats, including molecular biology reagents, such as ligase, buffers, and exonucleases. It also offers binding kits, such as modified DNA polymerase used to bind SMRTbell libraries to the polymerase in preparation for sequencing; and sequencing kits comprise reagents required for on-instrument, real-time sequencing, including the phospholinked nucleotides. In addition, it provides revio system + sequel systems which conduct, monitor, and analyze single-molecule biochemical reactions in real time; SBB short-read sequencing; onso instrument conducts, monitors, and analyzes SBB biochemical reactions; and SBB consumable, including flow cells, clustering, and sequencing reagent kits. The company serves academic and governmental research institutions; commercial testing and service laboratories; genome centers; public health labs, hospitals and clinical research institutes, and contract research organizations; pharmaceutical companies; and agricultural companies. It markets its products through a sales force and distribution partners in Asia, Australia, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Latin America. It has a development and commercialization agreement with Invitae Corporation; and a collaboration with Radboud University Medical to explore genetic causes of rare and genetic diseases. The company was formerly known as Nanofluidics, Inc. and changed its name to Pacific Biosciences of California, Inc. in 2005. Pacific Biosciences of California, Inc. was incorporated in 2000 and is headquartered in Menlo Park, California.

About Qiagen

QIAGEN NV is a holding company, which engages in the provision of Sample to Insight solutions that enable customers to gain valuable molecular insights from samples containing the building blocks of life. The company sample technologies isolate and process DNA, RNA, and proteins from blood, tissue, and other materials. The firm assay technologies make these biomolecules visible and ready for analysis. Its bioinformatics software and knowledge bases interpret data to report relevant, actionable insights. The company was founded by Detlev H. Riesner and Metin Colpan on April 29, 1996, and is headquartered in Venlo, the Netherlands.