Critical Comparison: Rafael (RFL) and Its Peers

Rafael (NYSE:RFL) is one of 897 publicly-traded companies in the “Pharmaceuticals” industry, but how does it weigh in compared to its peers? We will compare Rafael to similar companies based on the strength of its institutional ownership, risk, valuation, earnings, dividends, analyst recommendations and profitability.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent ratings for Rafael and its peers, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Rafael	1	0	0	0	1.00
Rafael Competitors	7765	13848	25701	1031	2.41

As a group, “Pharmaceuticals” companies have a potential upside of 25.58%. Given Rafael’s peers stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Rafael has less favorable growth aspects than its peers.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Rafael and its peers revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
Rafael	$870,000.00	-$29.64 million	-1.90
Rafael Competitors	$3.55 billion	$3.19 billion	547.89

Rafael’s peers have higher revenue and earnings than Rafael. Rafael is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than its peers, indicating that it is currently more affordable than other companies in its industry.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

11.3% of Rafael shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 32.5% of shares of all “Pharmaceuticals” companies are owned by institutional investors. 32.9% of Rafael shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 14.1% of shares of all “Pharmaceuticals” companies are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Risk and Volatility

Rafael has a beta of 0.75, indicating that its share price is 25% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Rafael’s peers have a beta of -3.75, indicating that their average share price is 475% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Rafael and its peers’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Rafael	-3,390.73%	-39.52%	-33.73%
Rafael Competitors	-2,380.90%	-221.90%	-15.99%

Summary

Rafael peers beat Rafael on 10 of the 13 factors compared.

Rafael Company Profile

Rafael Holdings, Inc. primarily engages in holding interests in clinical and early-stage pharmaceutical companies, and commercial real estate assets in the United States and Israel. It operates in two segments, Healthcare and Real Estate. The company engages in the development and commercialization of therapies that exploit the metabolic differences between normal cells and cancer cells. Its lead drug candidate is CPI-613 (devimistat), currently under Phase III clinical study for the treatment of metastatic pancreatic cancer and acute myeloid leukemia. The company is also involved in developing Promitil, a molecule designed for the targeted delivery of mitomycin-C in a proprietary prodrug form, completed Phase 1B clinical studies; Folate-targeted Promitil (Promi-Fol) which is aimed at local treatment (intravesical) of superficial bladder cancer; and Promi-Dox, a highly potent dual drug liposome with MLP and doxorubicin targeting a potential basket of tumors. In addition, it engages in the development of surgical and procedural devices, including orthopedic arthroscopy instrumentation. Rafael Holdings, Inc. was incorporated in 2017 and is headquartered in Newark, New Jersey.