Contrasting Atea Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:AVIR) and Alnylam Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:ALNY)

Atea Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:AVIR) and Alnylam Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:ALNY) are both medical companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their valuation, earnings, institutional ownership, risk, dividends, analyst recommendations and profitability.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current recommendations for Atea Pharmaceuticals and Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Atea Pharmaceuticals	0	1	0	1	3.00
Alnylam Pharmaceuticals	1	5	18	0	2.71

Atea Pharmaceuticals presently has a consensus target price of $6.88, indicating a potential upside of 117.72%. Alnylam Pharmaceuticals has a consensus target price of $298.09, indicating a potential upside of 20.89%. Given Atea Pharmaceuticals’ stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities research analysts plainly believe Atea Pharmaceuticals is more favorable than Alnylam Pharmaceuticals.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

86.7% of Atea Pharmaceuticals shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 93.0% of Alnylam Pharmaceuticals shares are owned by institutional investors. 17.8% of Atea Pharmaceuticals shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 1.5% of Alnylam Pharmaceuticals shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Atea Pharmaceuticals	N/A	-34.90%	-32.38%
Alnylam Pharmaceuticals	-15.86%	N/A	-8.38%

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Atea Pharmaceuticals and Alnylam Pharmaceuticals”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Atea Pharmaceuticals	$351.37 million	0.76	-$135.96 million	($2.07)	-1.53
Alnylam Pharmaceuticals	$2.09 billion	15.18	-$440.24 million	($2.62)	-94.11

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

Risk and Volatility

Atea Pharmaceuticals has a beta of 0.2, indicating that its share price is 80% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Alnylam Pharmaceuticals has a beta of 0.32, indicating that its share price is 68% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Atea Pharmaceuticals beats Alnylam Pharmaceuticals on 8 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Atea Pharmaceuticals

Atea Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, discovers, develops, and commercializes antiviral therapeutics for patients with viral infections. Its lead product candidate is AT-527, an oral antiviral candidate that is in Phase 3 SUNRISE-3 clinical trial for the treatment of patients with COVID-19. The company also develops bemnifosbuvir in combination with ruzasvir, which is in Phase 2 clinical trial, for the treatment of hepatitis C virus (HCV); and a protease inhibitor for the treatment of COVID-19. It has a license agreement with MSD International GmbH for the development, manufacture, and commercialization of Ruzasvir, an NS5A inhibitor, for the treatment of HCV. Atea Pharmaceuticals, Inc. was incorporated in 2012 and is headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts.

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.