Critical Analysis: Portage Biotech (ATON) & Its Peers

Portage Biotech (NASDAQ:ATON) is one of 457 public companies in the “Pharmaceutical Preparations” industry, but how does it contrast to its peers? We will compare Portage Biotech to related businesses based on the strength of its valuation, profitability, dividends, institutional ownership, risk, earnings and analyst recommendations.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current recommendations for Portage Biotech and its peers, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Portage Biotech	1	0	0	0	1.00
Portage Biotech Competitors	4892	9962	15987	376	2.38

As a group, “Pharmaceutical Preparations” companies have a potential upside of 134.69%. Given Portage Biotech’s peers stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Portage Biotech has less favorable growth aspects than its peers.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Portage Biotech and its peers gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
Portage Biotech	N/A	-$6.77 million	-0.06
Portage Biotech Competitors	$430.93 million	-$68.00 million	-10.85

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

Risk & Volatility

Portage Biotech has a beta of 0.33, indicating that its share price is 67% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Portage Biotech’s peers have a beta of 5.48, indicating that their average share price is 448% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

13.4% of Portage Biotech shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 39.3% of shares of all “Pharmaceutical Preparations” companies are owned by institutional investors. 13.9% of shares of all “Pharmaceutical Preparations” companies are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Portage Biotech	N/A	N/A	N/A
Portage Biotech Competitors	-2,643.93%	-361.49%	-42.88%

Summary

Portage Biotech peers beat Portage Biotech on 8 of the 13 factors compared.

About Portage Biotech

Portage Biotech Inc., together with its subsidiaries, researches and develops pharmaceutical and biotechnology products. The company’s product includes IMM60, an iNKT cell activator; IMM65, a PLGA-nanoparticle combined with a NY-ESO-1 peptide vaccine; INT230-6 that is in Phase I/II clinical trials for the treatment of solid tumors; STING, a small molecule that binds to the stimulator of interferon genes in cancer; CellPorter, a cell permeable peptide platform technology derived from human proteins; PPL-003, an ophthalmic solution; and SBI-101, a blood-conditioning technology to restore balance to the immune system after acute vital organ injury, such as acute kidney injury. It also focuses on nanolipogel technology for use in immune-oncology; and antibodies against a novel T-cell for use as a monotherapy and combination therapy for solid and haematological malignancies. In addition, the company develops antibodies implicated in the inflammatory tumor and tumor-infiltrating immune cell microenvironments; and FOXO4-P53 modulator and C-RAF inhibitor. Portage Biotech Inc. is based in Tortola, British Virgin Islands.