Head to Head Contrast: Exelixis (NASDAQ:EXEL) and Rigel Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:RIGL)

Rigel Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:RIGL) and Exelixis (NASDAQ:EXEL) are both healthcare companies, but which is the superior stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, valuation, analyst recommendations, earnings, profitability, risk and dividends.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

66.2% of Rigel Pharmaceuticals shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 85.3% of Exelixis shares are held by institutional investors. 10.5% of Rigel Pharmaceuticals shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 2.6% of Exelixis shares are held 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.

Profitability

This table compares Rigel Pharmaceuticals and Exelixis’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Rigel Pharmaceuticals	116.30%	22.95%	17.19%
Exelixis	35.33%	42.17%	31.76%

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent ratings and target prices for Rigel Pharmaceuticals and Exelixis, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Rigel Pharmaceuticals	0	3	4	0	2.57
Exelixis	1	12	7	1	2.38

Rigel Pharmaceuticals presently has a consensus price target of $59.00, indicating a potential upside of 30.10%. Exelixis has a consensus price target of $50.07, indicating a potential downside of 10.93%. Given Rigel Pharmaceuticals’ stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities research analysts plainly believe Rigel Pharmaceuticals is more favorable than Exelixis.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Rigel Pharmaceuticals and Exelixis”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Rigel Pharmaceuticals	$276.79 million	3.03	$367.02 million	$16.32	2.78
Exelixis	$2.44 billion	5.72	$782.57 million	$3.18	17.68

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

Volatility & Risk

Rigel Pharmaceuticals has a beta of 1.2, meaning that its stock price is 20% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Exelixis has a beta of 0.42, meaning that its stock price is 58% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Exelixis beats Rigel Pharmaceuticals on 9 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Rigel Pharmaceuticals

Rigel Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a biotechnology company, engages in discovering, developing, and providing therapies that enhance the lives of patients with hematologic disorders and cancer. The company’s commercialized products include Tavalisse, an oral spleen tyrosine kinase inhibitor for the treatment of adult patients with chronic immune thrombocytopenia; Rezlidhia, a non-intensive monotherapy for the treatment of adult patients with relapsed or refractory (R/R) acute myeloid leukemia (AML) with a susceptible isocitrate dehydrogenase-1 (IDH1) mutation as detected by an FDA-approved test; and GAVRETO, a once daily, small molecule, oral, kinase inhibitor for the treatment of adult patients with metastatic rearranged during transfection (RET) fusion-positive non-small cell lung cancer, as well as for the treatment of adult and pediatric patients 12 years of age and older with advanced or metastatic RET fusion-positive thyroid cancer. It also develops R289, an oral IRAK1/4 Inhibitor, which is in Phase 1b clinical trials for the treatment of hematology-oncology, autoimmune, and inflammatory diseases; and a receptor-interacting serine/threonine-protein kinase 1 (RIPK1) inhibitor program in clinical development with partner Eli Lilly and Company. In addition, the company has product candidates in clinical development with partners BerGenBio ASA and Daiichi Sankyo. The company has strategic development collaboration with The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center for the development of REZLIDHIA (Olutasidenib) in acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and other hematologic cancers. The company was incorporated in 1996 and is headquartered in South San Francisco, California.

About Exelixis

Exelixis, Inc., an oncology company, focuses on the discovery, development, and commercialization of new medicines for difficult-to-treat cancers in the United States. The company offers CABOMETYX tablets for the treatment of patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma who received prior anti-angiogenic therapy; and COMETRIQ capsules for the treatment of progressive and metastatic medullary thyroid cancer. Its CABOMETYX and COMETRIQ are derived from cabozantinib, an inhibitor of multiple tyrosine kinases, including MET, AXL, RET, and VEGF receptors. The company also offers COTELLIC, an inhibitor of MEK as a combination regimen to treat specific forms of advanced melanoma; and MINNEBRO, an oral non-steroidal selective blocker of the mineralocorticoid receptor for the treatment of hypertension in Japan. It develops zanzalintinib, a novel, potent, next-generation oral tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) that targets VEGF receptors, MET and the TAM kinases (TYRO3, AXL and MER); and XB002, a next-generation tissue factor (TF)-targeting ADC, administered via intravenous infusion and composed of a human monoclonal antibody (mAb) against TF that is conjugated to an auristatin-based microtubulin inhibitor (MTI) payload. It has research collaborations and license agreements with Ipsen Pharma SAS; Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Ltd.; F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd.; Redwood Bioscience, Inc.; R.P. Scherer Technologies, LLC; Catalent Pharma Solutions, Inc.; NBE Therapeutics AG; Aurigene Discovery Technologies Limited; Iconic Therapeutics, Inc.; Invenra, Inc.; StemSynergy Therapeutics, Inc.; Genentech, Inc.; Bristol-Myers Squibb Company; and Daiichi Sankyo Company, Limited, as well as clinical development agreement with Sairopa B.V. for ADU-1805. The company was formerly known as Exelixis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and changed its name to Exelixis, Inc. in February 2000. Exelixis, Inc. was incorporated in 1994 and is headquartered in Alameda, California.