Financial Comparison: Novartis (NYSE:NVS) & Design Therapeutics (NASDAQ:DSGN)

Novartis (NYSE:NVS) and Design Therapeutics (NASDAQ:DSGN) are both medical companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their profitability, institutional ownership, valuation, dividends, risk, analyst recommendations and earnings.

Profitability

This table compares Novartis and Design Therapeutics’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Novartis	15.35%	28.27%	12.58%
Design Therapeutics	N/A	-23.69%	-22.66%

Insider and Institutional Ownership

7.0% of Novartis shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 69.5% of Design Therapeutics shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.0% of Novartis shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 27.8% of Design Therapeutics shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings and recommmendations for Novartis and Design Therapeutics, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Novartis	0	4	3	0	2.43
Design Therapeutics	0	7	0	0	2.00

Novartis presently has a consensus target price of $85.00, suggesting a potential downside of 10.44%. Design Therapeutics has a consensus target price of $5.67, suggesting a potential upside of 155.26%. Given Design Therapeutics’ higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Design Therapeutics is more favorable than Novartis.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Novartis and Design Therapeutics’ top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Novartis	$50.55 billion	3.98	$6.96 billion	$3.72	25.51
Design Therapeutics	$230,000.00	540.52	-$63.31 million	($1.30)	-1.71

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

Volatility and Risk

Novartis has a beta of 0.56, indicating that its share price is 44% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Design Therapeutics has a beta of 1.52, indicating that its share price is 52% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Novartis beats Design Therapeutics on 9 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Novartis

Novartis AG researches, develops, manufactures, and markets healthcare products in Switzerland and internationally. The company offers prescription medicines for patients and physicians. It focuses on therapeutic areas, such as cardiovascular, renal and metabolic, immunology, neuroscience, and oncology, as well as ophthalmology and hematology. Novartis AG has a license and collaboration agreement with Alnylam Pharmaceuticals to develop, manufacture, and commercialize inclisiran, a therapy to reduce LDL cholesterol. Novartis AG was incorporated in 1996 and is headquartered in Basel, Switzerland.

About Design Therapeutics

Design Therapeutics, Inc. a preclinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, engages in the development of therapies for the treatment of genetic diseases caused by nucleotide repeat expansions. The company's portfolio of products comprises Friedreich Ataxia, a monogenic, autosomal recessive, progressive multi-system disease that affects organ systems dependent on mitochondrial function, eventually leading to neurological, cardiac, and metabolic dysfunction; and Myotonic Dystrophy Type-1 (DM1), a dominantly-inherited, monogenic progressive neuromuscular disease affecting skeletal muscle, heart, brain, and other organs. It is also developing GeneTAC product candidate portfolio for the treatment of other nucleotide repeat expansion-driven monogenic diseases, such as Fragile X syndrome, spinocerebellar ataxias, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, frontotemporal dementia, Huntington disease, and spinobulbar muscular atrophy. The company was incorporated in 2017 and is headquartered in Carlsbad, California.