Comparing EQRx (EQRX) and Its Competitors

EQRx (NASDAQ:EQRX – Get Rating) is one of 982 publicly-traded companies in the “Pharmaceutical preparations” industry, but how does it contrast to its peers? We will compare EQRx to related companies based on the strength of its profitability, earnings, dividends, institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, valuation and risk.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

82.6% of EQRx shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 40.7% of shares of all “Pharmaceutical preparations” companies are owned by institutional investors. 18.3% of EQRx shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 15.7% of shares of all “Pharmaceutical preparations” companies are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
EQRx	N/A	-18.43%	-17.05%
EQRx Competitors	-3,315.11%	-198.89%	-37.34%

Analyst Recommendations

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

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
EQRx	1	2	2	0	2.20
EQRx Competitors	3942	14642	40901	692	2.64

EQRx presently has a consensus target price of $4.57, indicating a potential upside of 100.29%. As a group, “Pharmaceutical preparations” companies have a potential upside of 114.71%. Given EQRx’s peers stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe EQRx has less favorable growth aspects than its peers.

Risk & Volatility

EQRx has a beta of 0.65, indicating that its stock price is 35% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, EQRx’s peers have a beta of 0.94, indicating that their average stock price is 6% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares EQRx and its peers top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
EQRx	N/A	-$169.09 million	-6.33
EQRx Competitors	$2.14 billion	$236.18 million	-3.21

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

Summary

EQRx peers beat EQRx on 8 of the 13 factors compared.

About EQRx

(Get Rating)

EQRx, Inc., a pharmaceutical company, engages in developing medicines primarily for the treatment of oncology and immune-inflammatory diseases in the United States. The company's pre-registrational programs in Phase III clinical trial include Aumolertinib, an epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) inhibitor for the treatment of patients with EGFR-mutated non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC); and Sugemalimab, an anti-programmed death-ligand 1 antibody for the treatment of Stage III and Stage IV NSCLC. Its other programs in pipeline include clinical and pre-clinical stage assets, which comprise Lerociclib, a small molecule cyclin-dependent kinase 4/6 inhibitor, which is in Phase II clinical trials in patients with metastatic breast cancer; EQ176, an anti-programmed death-1 antibody that is in Phase III trials for the treatment of patients with primary liver cancer; and EQ121, a selective janus kinase-1 inhibitor that is in various Phase I trials. The company was incorporated in 2019 and is headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts.