Nuvation Bio (NYSE:NUVB) versus Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:ARWR) Financial Survey

Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:ARWR) and Nuvation Bio (NYSE:NUVB) are both healthcare companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their valuation, earnings, risk, analyst recommendations, dividends, institutional ownership and profitability.

Risk and Volatility

Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals has a beta of 1.28, meaning that its stock price is 28% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Nuvation Bio has a beta of 1.52, meaning that its stock price is 52% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals and Nuvation Bio”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals	$829.45 million	14.66	-$1.63 million	($2.25)	-38.37
Nuvation Bio	$62.90 million	37.90	-$204.63 million	($0.44)	-15.43

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

Profitability

This table compares Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals and Nuvation Bio’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals	-47.79%	-60.06%	-17.37%
Nuvation Bio	-88.18%	-46.59%	-22.01%

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent ratings for Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals and Nuvation Bio, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals	1	3	9	0	2.62
Nuvation Bio	1	2	10	0	2.69

Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals currently has a consensus target price of $98.42, indicating a potential upside of 13.99%. Nuvation Bio has a consensus target price of $13.00, indicating a potential upside of 91.46%. Given Nuvation Bio’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Nuvation Bio is more favorable than Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

62.6% of Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 61.7% of Nuvation Bio shares are held by institutional investors. 3.6% of Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 30.1% of Nuvation Bio shares are held by 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

Nuvation Bio beats Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals on 9 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals

Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals, Inc. develops medicines for the treatment of intractable diseases in the United States. The company's products in pipeline includes Plozasiran, which is in Phase 2b and one Phase 3 clinical trial to treat hypertriglyceridemia, mixed dyslipidemia, and chylomicronemia syndrome; Zodasiran that is in Phase 2b clinical trial for the treatment of dyslipidemia and hypertriglyceridemia; ARO-PNPLA3, which is in Phase 1 clinical trial to treat patients with non-alcoholic steatohepatitis; ARO-RAGE that is in Phase 1/2a clinical trial to treat inflammatory pulmonary conditions; and ARO-MUC5AC, which is in Phase 1/2a clinical trial to treat muco-obstructive pulmonary diseases. It also develops ARO-MMP7 that is in Phase 1/2a clinical trial for treatment of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis; ARO-DUX4 for the treatment of facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy; ARO-SOD1 for the potential treatment of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis; and ARO-C3, which is in Phase 1/2a clinical trial for the treatment of patients with various complement mediated or complement associated renal diseases. In addition, the company is involved in the development of JNJ-3989, which is in Phase 2 clinical trial to treat chronic hepatitis B virus infection; Olpasiran that is in Phase 3 clinical trial to reduce the production of apolipoprotein A; GSK-4532990 that is in phase 2 clinical trial to treat liver diseases; HZN-457, which is in phase 1 clinical trial to treat uncontrolled gout; and Fazirsiran that is in Phase 3 clinical trial for the treatment for liver disease associated with alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency. Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals, Inc. has license and research collaboration agreements with Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Inc.; Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited; Horizon Therapeutics Ireland DAC; Amgen Inc.; and Glaxosmithkline Intellectual Property (No. 3) Limited. The company was founded in 2003 and is headquartered in Pasadena, California.

About Nuvation Bio

Nuvation Bio Inc., a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, focuses on the development of therapeutic candidates for oncology. The company's lead product candidate is NUV-868, a BD2 selective oral small molecule BET inhibitor that epigenetically regulates proteins that control tumor growth and differentiation, including oncogenes comprising c-myc; NUV-1156, an AR binder Xtandi that address advanced stage prostate cancers with the potential to move into earlier lines typically treated with surgical prostatectomy; and drug-drug conjugate (DDC) platform which leverages a novel therapeutic approach within the drug-conjugate class of anti-cancer therapies to deliver anti-cancer therapeutics to cancer cells, as well as NUV-1176, a PARP inhibitor to address ER+ breast and ovarian cancer. The company was founded in 2018 and is headquartered in New York, New York.