AC Immune (ACIU) versus Its Rivals Head-To-Head Analysis

AC Immune (NASDAQ:ACIU) is one of 844 public companies in the “Biotechnology” industry, but how does it weigh in compared to its rivals? We will compare AC Immune to related businesses based on the strength of its institutional ownership, earnings, profitability, valuation, dividends, analyst recommendations and risk.

Profitability

This table compares AC Immune and its rivals’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
AC Immune	-245.32%	-100.17%	-28.36%
AC Immune Competitors	-9,054.29%	-198.66%	-30.54%

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares AC Immune and its rivals gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
AC Immune	$17.51 million	-$85.03 million	-4.11
AC Immune Competitors	$722.78 million	$12.25 million	-10.12

AC Immune’s rivals have higher revenue and earnings than AC Immune. AC Immune is trading at a higher price-to-earnings ratio than its rivals, indicating that it is currently more expensive than other companies in its industry.

Volatility and Risk

AC Immune has a beta of 1.56, meaning that its share price is 56% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, AC Immune’s rivals have a beta of 1.14, meaning that their average share price is 14% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current ratings for AC Immune and its rivals, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
AC Immune	1	1	3	0	2.40
AC Immune Competitors	9773	15031	45238	1571	2.54

AC Immune currently has a consensus target price of $7.50, suggesting a potential upside of 237.84%. As a group, “Biotechnology” companies have a potential upside of 95.50%. Given AC Immune’s higher possible upside, equities research analysts plainly believe AC Immune is more favorable than its rivals.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

51.4% of AC Immune shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 47.9% of shares of all “Biotechnology” companies are owned by institutional investors. 4.6% of AC Immune shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 13.1% of shares of all “Biotechnology” companies are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Summary

AC Immune beats its rivals on 7 of the 13 factors compared.

AC Immune Company Profile

AC Immune SA, a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company, discovers, designs, and develops medicines and diagnostic products for the prevention and treatment of neurodegenerative diseases associated with protein misfolding. Its SupraAntigen and Morphomer platforms are designed to generate vaccines, antibodies, and small molecules, which selectively interact with misfolded proteins that are common in a range of neurodegenerative diseases. The company is developing Crenezumab, a humanized, conformation-specific monoclonal antibody, which is in Phase II clinical studies trial for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease (AD). It is also developing ACI-24, an anti-Abeta vaccine candidate that is in Phase II clinical study for AD, as well as completed Phase Ib clinical study for Down syndrome; ACI-35, an anti-Tau vaccine candidate that is in Phase Ib/2a clinical study; and Tau- positron emission tomography (PET) imaging tracer, which is in Phase II clinical study. In addition, the company is researching and developing small molecule Tau aggregation inhibitors for AD and NeuroOrphan indications. Further, it has discovery and preclinical stage molecules targeting range of neurodegenerative diseases, which include diagnostics targeting TDP-43, alpha-synuclein, and NLRP3. AC Immune SA has license agreements and collaborations with Genentech, Inc.; Biogen International GmbH; Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Inc.; Life Molecular Imaging SA; Eli Lilly and Company; and WuXi Biologics. The company was incorporated in 2003 and is headquartered in Lausanne, Switzerland.