Reviewing Alnylam Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:ALNY) and Vir Biotechnology (NASDAQ:VIR)

Vir Biotechnology (NASDAQ:VIR) and Alnylam Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:ALNY) are both healthcare companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their earnings, dividends, analyst recommendations, valuation, profitability, risk and institutional ownership.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent ratings and recommmendations for Vir Biotechnology and Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Vir Biotechnology	2	0	6	1	2.67
Alnylam Pharmaceuticals	0	6	16	3	2.88

Vir Biotechnology presently has a consensus target price of $21.86, suggesting a potential upside of 109.96%. Alnylam Pharmaceuticals has a consensus target price of $365.50, suggesting a potential upside of 62.83%. Given Vir Biotechnology’s higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Vir Biotechnology is more favorable than Alnylam Pharmaceuticals.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Vir Biotechnology and Alnylam Pharmaceuticals”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Vir Biotechnology	$68.56 million	25.69	-$437.99 million	($1.86)	-5.60
Alnylam Pharmaceuticals	$3.71 billion	8.09	$313.75 million	$5.38	41.72

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

Risk and Volatility

Vir Biotechnology has a beta of 1.59, suggesting that its share price is 59% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Alnylam Pharmaceuticals has a beta of 0.28, suggesting that its share price is 72% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

65.3% of Vir Biotechnology shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 93.0% of Alnylam Pharmaceuticals shares are held by institutional investors. 2.9% of Vir Biotechnology shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.9% of Alnylam Pharmaceuticals shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

This table compares Vir Biotechnology and Alnylam Pharmaceuticals’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Vir Biotechnology	N/A	-29.99%	-23.62%
Alnylam Pharmaceuticals	15.26%	84.93%	14.30%

Summary

Alnylam Pharmaceuticals beats Vir Biotechnology on 11 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Vir Biotechnology

Vir Biotechnology, Inc., an immunology company, develops therapeutic products to treat and prevent serious infectious diseases. Its clinical development pipeline consists of product candidates targeting hepatitis delta virus (HDV), hepatitis B virus (HBV), and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). The company’s preclinical candidates include those targeting influenza A and B, coronavirus disease 2019, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and human metapneumovirus (MPV), and human papillomavirus (HPV). The company has grant agreements with Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and National Institutes of Health; an option and license agreement with Brii Biosciences Limited; a collaboration and license agreement with Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Inc.; license agreements with MedImmune, LLC; collaboration with WuXi Biologics (Hong Kong) Limited and Glaxo Wellcome UK Ltd.; and a collaborative research agreement with GlaxoSmithKline Biologicals S.A, as well as license agreement with Sanofi for three clinical-stage masked T-cell engagers (TCEs) and exclusive use of the protease-cleavable masking platform for oncology and infectious diseases. It also has a manufacturing agreement with Samsung Biologics Co.,Ltd. The company was incorporated in 2016 and is headquartered in San Francisco, California.

About Alnylam Pharmaceuticals

Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company, focuses on discovering, developing, and commercializing novel therapeutics based on ribonucleic acid interference. Its marketed products include ONPATTRO (patisiran) for the treatment of the polyneuropathy of hereditary transthyretin-mediated amyloidosis in adults; AMVUTTRA for the treatment of hATTR amyloidosis with polyneuropathy in adults; GIVLAARI for the treatment of adults with acute hepatic porphyria; and OXLUMO for the treatment of primary hyperoxaluria type 1. In addition, the company develops patisiran for the treatment of transthyretin amyloidosis, or ATTR amyloidosis, with cardiomyopathy; cemdisiran to treat complement-mediated diseases; Belcesiran for the treatment of alpha-1 liver disease; Elebsiran to treat chronic HBV infection; Zilebesiran to treat hypertension; ALN-APP to treat Alzheimer's disease and cerebral amyloid angiopathy; and ALN-HSD to treat NASH. Further, it offers Fitusiran for the treatment of hemophilia, Inclisiran to treat hypercholesterolemia, lumasiran for the treatment of advanced PH1, and vutrisiran for the treatment of ATTR amyloidosis, which is in phase 3 clinical trial. Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Inc. has strategic collaborations with Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc. to discover, develop, and commercialize RNAi therapeutics for a range of diseases by addressing therapeutic targets expressed in the eye and CNS; and Roche to develop pharmaceutical products containing zilebesiran. It also has license and collaboration agreements with Novartis AG; Vir Biotechnology, Inc.; Dicerna Pharmaceuticals, Inc.; Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc.; and PeptiDream, Inc. The company was founded in 2002 and is headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts.