Head-To-Head Contrast: Virbac (OTC:VRBCF) versus Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN)

Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) and Virbac (OTC:VRBCF) are both medical companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, valuation, earnings, risk, dividends, institutional ownership and profitability.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

74.4% of Amgen shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 24.3% of Virbac shares are held by institutional investors. 0.6% of Amgen shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent ratings for Amgen and Virbac, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Amgen	2	7	10	0	2.42
Virbac	0	0	0	0	N/A

Amgen presently has a consensus price target of $280.16, suggesting a potential upside of 2.52%. Given Amgen’s higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Amgen is more favorable than Virbac.

Dividends

Amgen pays an annual dividend of $8.52 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.1%. Virbac pays an annual dividend of $1.90 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.7%. Amgen pays out 60.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Virbac pays out 28.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. Amgen has increased its dividend for 11 consecutive years. Amgen is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Profitability

This table compares Amgen and Virbac’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Amgen	28.20%	165.37%	11.59%
Virbac	N/A	N/A	N/A

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Amgen and Virbac’s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Amgen	$26.32 billion	5.56	$6.55 billion	$14.07	19.42
Virbac	N/A	N/A	N/A	$6.61	43.70

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

Summary

Amgen beats Virbac on 11 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Amgen

Amgen Inc. discovers, develops, manufactures, and delivers human therapeutics worldwide. It focuses on inflammation, oncology/hematology, bone health, cardiovascular disease, nephrology, and neuroscience areas. The company's products include Enbrel to treat plaque psoriasis, rheumatoid arthritis, and psoriatic arthritis; Neulasta that reduces the chance of infection due a low white blood cell count in patients cancer; Prolia to treat postmenopausal women with osteoporosis; Xgeva for skeletal-related events prevention; Otezla for the treatment of adult patients with plaque psoriasis, psoriatic arthritis, and oral ulcers associated with Behçet's disease; Aranesp to treat a lower-than-normal number of red blood cells and anemia; KYPROLIS to treat patients with relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma; and Repatha, which reduces the risks of myocardial infarction, stroke, and coronary revascularization. It also markets Nplate, Vectibix, MVASI, Parsabiv, EPOGEN, KANJINTI, BLINCYTO, Aimovig, EVENITY, AMGEVITATM, Sensipar/Mimpara, NEUPOGEN, IMLYGIC, Corlanor, and AVSOLA. Amgen Inc. serves healthcare providers, including physicians or their clinics, dialysis centers, hospitals, and pharmacies. It distributes its products through pharmaceutical wholesale distributors, as well as direct-to-consumer channels. It has collaboration agreements with Novartis Pharma AG; UCB; Bayer HealthCare LLC; BeiGene, Ltd.; Eli Lilly and Company; Datos Health; and Verastem, Inc. to evaluate VS-6766 in combination with lumakrastm (Sotorasib) in patients with KRAS G12C-mutant non-small cell lung cancer. It has an agreement with Kyowa Kirin Co., Ltd. to jointly develop and commercialize KHK4083, a Phase 3-ready anti-OX40 fully human monoclonal antibody for the treatment of atopic dermatitis and other autoimmune diseases; and research and development collaboration with Neumora Therapeutics, Inc. and Plexium, Inc. Amgen Inc. was incorporated in 1980 and is headquartered in Thousand Oaks, California.

About Virbac

Virbac SA manufactures and sells a range of products and services for companion animals and farm animals in France, Europe, Latin America, North America, Asia, Pacific, and Africa and the Middle East. The company offers a range of vaccines, dental hygiene, reproduction, dermatology, parasiticides, diagnostic, antibiotics, and aquaculture products; and veterinary medicines for anesthesia, geriatrics, behavior, and injectable micronutrients, as well as petfood and electronic identification. It serves veterinarians, farmers, and pet owners. Virbac SA was founded in 1968 and is headquartered in Carros, France.