Head to Head Analysis: Assembly Biosciences (ASMB) and Its Rivals

Assembly Biosciences (NASDAQ:ASMB) is one of 896 public companies in the “Pharmaceuticals” industry, but how does it contrast to its rivals? We will compare Assembly Biosciences to related businesses based on the strength of its institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, risk, profitability, earnings, valuation and dividends.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current recommendations and price targets for Assembly Biosciences and its rivals, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Assembly Biosciences	1	0	4	1	2.83
Assembly Biosciences Competitors	7792	13886	25777	1037	2.41

Assembly Biosciences presently has a consensus price target of $46.50, indicating a potential upside of 127.72%. As a group, “Pharmaceuticals” companies have a potential upside of 25.56%. Given Assembly Biosciences’ stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities analysts plainly believe Assembly Biosciences is more favorable than its rivals.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

19.9% of Assembly Biosciences shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 32.5% of shares of all “Pharmaceuticals” companies are owned by institutional investors. 3.5% of Assembly Biosciences shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 14.2% of shares of all “Pharmaceuticals” companies are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Profitability

This table compares Assembly Biosciences and its rivals’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Assembly Biosciences	-0.06%	-0.02%	-0.02%
Assembly Biosciences Competitors	-2,372.59%	-220.82%	-15.99%

Risk and Volatility

Assembly Biosciences has a beta of 1.26, indicating that its stock price is 26% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Assembly Biosciences’ rivals have a beta of -3.62, indicating that their average stock price is 462% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Assembly Biosciences and its rivals gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
Assembly Biosciences	$72.30 million	-$6.12 million	20.02
Assembly Biosciences Competitors	$3.54 billion	$3.17 billion	554.50

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

Summary

Assembly Biosciences beats its rivals on 8 of the 13 factors compared.

About Assembly Biosciences

Assembly Biosciences, Inc., a biotechnology company, develops therapeutic candidates for the treatment of viral diseases. It develops ABI-5366, a long-acting herpes simplex virus (HSV) helicase-primase inhibitor that is in Phase 1a/1b clinical trial to treat recurrent genital herpes; ABI-1179, which is in Phase 1a/1b clinical trial for the treatment of recurrent genital herpes; and ABI-6250, a small molecule orally bioavailable hepatitis delta virus entry inhibitor that is in Phase 1a clinical trial. The company also develops ABI-4334, a next-generation capsid assembly modulator, which is in Phase 1b clinical trial for the treatment of hepatitis B virus (HBV). In addition, it develops an oral non-nucleoside polymerase inhibitor targeting transplant-related herpesviruses; and a small molecule interferon-a receptor agonist targeting HBV and HDV. The company has collaboration agreements with Gilead Sciences, Inc. and BeiGene, Ltd. The company was formerly known as Ventrus Biosciences, Inc. and changed its name to Assembly Biosciences, Inc. in June 2014. Assembly Biosciences, Inc. was incorporated in 2005 and is headquartered in South San Francisco, California.