Head-To-Head Contrast: Aravive (NASDAQ:ARAV) & Biogen (NASDAQ:BIIB)

Aravive (NASDAQ:ARAV) and Biogen (NASDAQ:BIIB) are both medical companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their profitability, earnings, analyst recommendations, valuation, institutional ownership, dividends and risk.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current ratings and target prices for Aravive and Biogen, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Aravive	0	0	0	0	0.00
Biogen	1	15	10	0	2.35

Biogen has a consensus price target of $190.50, indicating a potential upside of 15.48%. Given Biogen’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Biogen is more favorable than Aravive.

Profitability

This table compares Aravive and Biogen’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Aravive	N/A	N/A	N/A
Biogen	15.98%	14.13%	8.64%

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Aravive and Biogen”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Aravive	N/A	N/A	N/A	($0.90)	-0.04
Biogen	$9.68 billion	2.50	$1.63 billion	$10.97	15.04

Biogen has higher revenue and earnings than Aravive. Aravive is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Biogen, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

35.8% of Aravive shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 87.9% of Biogen shares are held by institutional investors. 60.4% of Aravive shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 0.2% of Biogen shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Summary

Biogen beats Aravive on 10 of the 11 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Aravive

Aravive, Inc., a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, develops transformative treatments for life-threatening diseases, including cancer and fibrosis in the United States. Its lead product candidate is batiraxcept, an ultrahigh-affinity, decoy protein that targets the GAS6-AXL signaling pathway, which is in Phase III clinical trial for the treatment of platinum- resistant recurrent ovarian cancer; and in Phase Ib/II clinical trial for the treatment of clear cell renal cell carcinoma and pancreatic adenocarcinoma. The company also develops AVB-S6, a soluble Fc-fusion protein to block the activation of the GAS6-AXL signaling pathway. It has a license and collaboration agreement with WuXi Biologics (Hong Kong) Limited to identify and develop novel high-affinity bispecific antibodies targeting cancer and fibrosis; and license agreement with 3D Medicines Inc. to develop products that contain batiraxcept as the sole drug substance for the treatment of human oncological diseases in mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau. The company was formerly known as Versartis, Inc. and changed its name to Aravive, Inc. in October 2018. Aravive, Inc. was incorporated in 2008 and is headquartered in Houston, Texas.

About Biogen

Biogen Inc. discovers, develops, manufactures, and delivers therapies for treating neurological and neurodegenerative diseases in the United States, Europe, Germany, Asia, and internationally. The company provides TECFIDERA, VUMERITY, AVONEX, PLEGRIDY, TYSABRI, and FAMPYRA for multiple sclerosis (MS); SPINRAZA for spinal muscular atrophy; ADUHELM to treat Alzheimer’s disease; FUMADERM to treat plaque psoriasis; BENEPALI, an etanercept biosimilar referencing ENBREL; IMRALDI, an adalimumab biosimilar referencing HUMIRA; FLIXABI, an infliximab biosimilar referencing REMICADE; and BYOOVIZ, a ranibizumab biosimilar referencing LUCENTIS. It offers RITUXAN for treating non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), rheumatoid arthritis, two forms of ANCA-associated vasculitis, and pemphigus vulgaris; RITUXAN HYCELA for non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and CLL; GAZYVA to treat CLL and follicular lymphoma; OCREVUS for relapsing MS and primary progressive MS; LUNSUMIO to treat relapsed or refractory follicular lymphoma; glofitamab for non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma; and other anti-CD20 therapies. In addition, the company is developing various products for the treatment of MS, Alzheimer’s disease and dementia, neuromuscular disorders, Parkinson’s disease and movement disorders, neuropsychiatry, genetic neurodevelopmental disorders, and biosimilars, which are under various stages of development. It has collaboration and license agreements with Acorda Therapeutics, Inc.; Alkermes Pharma Ireland Limited; Denali Therapeutics Inc.; Eisai Co., Ltd.; Genentech, Inc.; Neurimmune SubOne AG; Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc.; Samsung Bioepis Co., Ltd.; Sangamo Therapeutics, Inc.; and Sage Therapeutics, Inc., as well as collaboration with Fujirebio to potentially identify and develop blood-based biomarkers for tau pathology in the brain. The company was founded in 1978 and is headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts.