Head to Head Contrast: Portage Biotech (NASDAQ:PRTG) & Wave Life Sciences (NASDAQ:WVE)

Wave Life Sciences (NASDAQ:WVE) and Portage Biotech (NASDAQ:PRTG) are both medical companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their risk, earnings, valuation, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, profitability and dividends.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current recommendations and price targets for Wave Life Sciences and Portage Biotech, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Wave Life Sciences	0	1	7	1	3.00
Portage Biotech	0	1	0	0	2.00

Wave Life Sciences presently has a consensus target price of $22.22, indicating a potential upside of 68.48%. Given Wave Life Sciences’ stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities analysts clearly believe Wave Life Sciences is more favorable than Portage Biotech.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

89.7% of Wave Life Sciences shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 13.4% of Portage Biotech shares are owned by institutional investors. 29.1% of Wave Life Sciences shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 42.1% of Portage Biotech shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Wave Life Sciences and Portage Biotech”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Wave Life Sciences	$53.61 million	37.53	-$57.51 million	($1.11)	-11.88
Portage Biotech	N/A	N/A	-$75.34 million	($41.65)	-0.14

Wave Life Sciences has higher revenue and earnings than Portage Biotech. Wave Life Sciences is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Portage Biotech, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

This table compares Wave Life Sciences and Portage Biotech’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Wave Life Sciences	-66.50%	-280.57%	-52.90%
Portage Biotech	N/A	-342.34%	-196.47%

Volatility and Risk

Wave Life Sciences has a beta of -1.21, suggesting that its share price is 221% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Portage Biotech has a beta of 1.45, suggesting that its share price is 45% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Wave Life Sciences beats Portage Biotech on 10 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Wave Life Sciences

Wave Life Sciences Ltd., a clinical-stage biotechnology company, designs, develops, and commercializes ribonucleic acid (RNA) medicines through PRISM, a discovery and drug development platform. The company's RNA medicines platform, PRISM, combines multiple modalities, chemistry innovation, and deep insights into human genetics to deliver scientific breakthroughs that treat both rare and prevalent disorders. It is developing WVE-006, a RNA editing oligonucleotide for the treatment of alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency; siRNA clinical candidate for the treatment of obesity and other metabolic disorders; WVE-N531, a exon skipping oligonucleotide for the treatment of duchenne muscular dystrophy; and WVE-003, an antisense silencing oligonucleotide for the treatment of Huntington's disease (HD). The company has collaboration agreements with GlaxoSmithKline for the research, development, and commercialization of oligonucleotide therapeutics; Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited for the research, development, and commercialization of oligonucleotide therapeutics for disorders of the Central Nervous System; and Asuragen, Inc. for the development and potential commercialization of companion diagnostics for investigational allele-selective therapeutic programs targeting HD. Wave Life Sciences Ltd. was incorporated in 2012 and is based in Singapore.

About Portage Biotech

Portage Biotech Inc., a clinical stage immune-oncology company, engages in the research and develops pharmaceutical and biotechnology products. Its product pipeline includes PORT-2 for treatment of refractory NSCLC, melanoma, and refractory melanoma that is in phase I and phase II clinical trials; PORT-3, for treatment of solid tumors, which is in phase I clinical trials; PORT-6, an A2AR inhibitor to treat A2A & A2B high solid tumors that is in phase Ia clinical trials; PORT-7, an A2AR inhibitor to treat A2A & A2B high solid tumors that is in phase Ib clinical trials; PORT-1, an intratumoral amphiphilic solutions for treatment of advanced soft tissue sarcoma, which is in phase 3 clinical trials; PORT-4, a nanolipogel co-formulations to treat of solid tumors that is in preclinical trials; and PORT-5, a VLP-STING to treat of solid tumors that is in preclinical trials. The company is based in Tortola, British Virgin Islands.