Wave Life Sciences (NASDAQ:WVE – Get Free Report) and Portage Biotech (NASDAQ:PRTG – Get Free Report) are both medical companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, risk, earnings, profitability, valuation, dividends and institutional ownership.
Institutional and Insider Ownership
89.7% of Wave Life Sciences shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 13.4% of Portage Biotech shares are held by institutional investors. 29.1% of Wave Life Sciences shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 42.1% of Portage Biotech shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.
Risk & Volatility
Wave Life Sciences has a beta of -1.21, indicating that its stock price is 221% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Portage Biotech has a beta of 1.45, indicating that its stock price is 45% more volatile than the S&P 500.
Valuation and Earnings
| Gross Revenue | Price/Sales Ratio | Net Income | Earnings Per Share | Price/Earnings Ratio | |
| Wave Life Sciences | $53.61 million | 39.55 | -$57.51 million | ($1.11) | -12.52 |
| Portage Biotech | N/A | N/A | -$75.34 million | ($41.65) | -0.19 |
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.
Analyst Ratings
This is a summary of current ratings and target prices for Wave Life Sciences and Portage Biotech, as provided by MarketBeat.
| Sell Ratings | Hold Ratings | Buy Ratings | Strong Buy Ratings | Rating Score | |
| Wave Life Sciences | 0 | 1 | 8 | 1 | 3.00 |
| Portage Biotech | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2.00 |
Wave Life Sciences presently has a consensus price target of $22.22, indicating a potential upside of 59.87%. Given Wave Life Sciences’ stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities analysts plainly believe Wave Life Sciences is more favorable than Portage Biotech.
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% |
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.
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