Critical Review: Curis (NASDAQ:CRIS) and Ionis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:IONS)

Curis (NASDAQ:CRIS) and Ionis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:IONS) are both healthcare companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, risk, earnings, valuation, profitability, analyst recommendations and dividends.

Profitability

This table compares Curis and Ionis Pharmaceuticals’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Curis	-80.29%	-2,365.94%	-200.88%
Ionis Pharmaceuticals	-64.76%	-111.08%	-17.41%

Analyst Ratings

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

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Curis	2	0	1	0	1.67
Ionis Pharmaceuticals	1	4	17	0	2.73

Curis presently has a consensus price target of $43.00, indicating a potential upside of 3,073.43%. Ionis Pharmaceuticals has a consensus price target of $94.20, indicating a potential upside of 62.16%. Given Curis’ higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Curis is more favorable than Ionis Pharmaceuticals.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Curis and Ionis Pharmaceuticals”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Curis	$9.44 million	0.30	-$7.58 million	($14.22)	-0.10
Ionis Pharmaceuticals	$944.00 million	10.23	-$381.39 million	($3.46)	-16.79

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

Institutional & Insider Ownership

30.0% of Curis shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 93.9% of Ionis Pharmaceuticals shares are held by institutional investors. 5.8% of Curis shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 1.8% of Ionis Pharmaceuticals shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Risk and Volatility

Curis has a beta of 3.01, meaning that its share price is 201% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Ionis Pharmaceuticals has a beta of 0.42, meaning that its share price is 58% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Ionis Pharmaceuticals beats Curis on 9 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Curis

Curis, Inc., a biotechnology company, engages in the discovery and development of drug candidates for the treatment of human cancers in the United States. Its clinical stage drug candidates include Emavusertib, an oral small molecule IRAK4 kinase inhibitor, which is in a Phase 1/2 open-label, single arm expansion trial in patients with relapsed or refractory, or R/R, AML and high-risk myelodysplastic syndromes. The company’s pipeline also includes Fimepinostat, an oral dual inhibitor of HDAC and PI3K enzymes for the treatment of patients with relapsed or refractory diffuse large B-cell lymphoma; CA-170, an oral, small molecule antagonist designated as CA-170 that selectively targets PD-L1 and VISTA; and CA-327, an oral, small molecule, TIM3/PD-L1, which is a molecule antagonist of PD-L1 and TIM3. It has collaboration agreement with Genentech Inc., or Genentech and F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd, or Roche, for the commercialization of Erivedge, an orally-administered small molecule hedgehog signaling pathway antagonist for the treatment of advanced basal cell carcinoma, or BCC; Aurigene Discovery Technologies Limited for the discovery, development, and commercialization of small molecule compounds in the areas of immuno-oncology and precision oncology; and also licensed four programs under the Aurigene collaboration, including emavusertib. Curis, Inc. was incorporated in 2000 and is headquartered in Lexington, Massachusetts.

About Ionis Pharmaceuticals

Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. discovers and develops RNA-targeted therapeutics in the United States. The company offers SPINRAZA for spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) in pediatric and adult patients; TEGSEDI, an antisense injection for the treatment of polyneuropathy caused by hereditary transthyretin amyloidosis in adults; and WAYLIVRA, an antisense medicine for treatment for familial chylomicronemia syndrome (FCS) and familial partial lipodystrophy. It also develops medicines for various indications that are in phase 3 study, including Eplontersen as a monthly self-administered subcutaneous injection to treat all types of ATTR; Olezarsen for patients with FCS and severe hypertriglyceridemia (SHTG); Donidalorsen for patients with hereditary angioedema; ION363 for patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis; Tofersen to inhibit the production of superoxide dismutase 1; Pelacarsen for patients with established cardiovascular disease and elevated lipoprotein(a); and Bepirovirsen to inhibit the production of viral proteins associated with hepatitis B virus. In addition, the company develops IONIS-FB-LRx to inhibit the production of complement factor B and the alternative complement pathway; and ION224 to reduce the production of diacylglycerol acyltransferase 2. It has a strategic collaboration with Biogen for the treatment of neurological disorders; and collaboration and license agreement with Metagenomi, Inc, AstraZeneca, Bayer AG, GlaxoSmithKline plc, Novartis, Roche, Swedish Orphan Biovitrum AB, and PTC Therapeutics. The company was incorporated in 1989 and is based in Carlsbad, California.