Akebia Therapeutics (NASDAQ:AKBA – Get Free Report) and FibroGen (NASDAQ:FGEN – Get Free Report) are both small-cap medical companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, profitability, valuation, analyst recommendations, dividends, earnings and institutional ownership.
Insider and Institutional Ownership
33.9% of Akebia Therapeutics shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 72.7% of FibroGen shares are owned by institutional investors. 3.0% of Akebia Therapeutics shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 3.1% of FibroGen shares are owned by company 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.
Risk & Volatility
Akebia Therapeutics has a beta of 0.96, indicating that its stock price is 4% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, FibroGen has a beta of 0.76, indicating that its stock price is 24% less volatile than the S&P 500.
Profitability
| Net Margins | Return on Equity | Return on Assets | |
| Akebia Therapeutics | -17.91% | N/A | -14.83% |
| FibroGen | -9.73% | N/A | -24.77% |
Analyst Recommendations
This is a breakdown of recent recommendations and price targets for Akebia Therapeutics and FibroGen, as provided by MarketBeat.com.
| Sell Ratings | Hold Ratings | Buy Ratings | Strong Buy Ratings | Rating Score | |
| Akebia Therapeutics | 0 | 0 | 4 | 1 | 3.20 |
| FibroGen | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2.50 |
Akebia Therapeutics presently has a consensus target price of $6.75, suggesting a potential upside of 97.37%. FibroGen has a consensus target price of $43.00, suggesting a potential upside of 393.69%. Given FibroGen’s higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe FibroGen is more favorable than Akebia Therapeutics.
Valuation and Earnings
This table compares Akebia Therapeutics and FibroGen”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.
| Gross Revenue | Price/Sales Ratio | Net Income | Earnings Per Share | Price/Earnings Ratio | |
| Akebia Therapeutics | $160.18 million | 5.61 | -$69.41 million | ($0.21) | -16.29 |
| FibroGen | $29.62 million | 1.19 | -$47.58 million | ($2.50) | -3.48 |
FibroGen has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Akebia Therapeutics. Akebia Therapeutics is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than FibroGen, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Summary
Akebia Therapeutics beats FibroGen on 8 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.
About Akebia Therapeutics
Akebia Therapeutics, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company, focuses on the development and commercialization of therapeutics for patients with kidney diseases. The company’s lead product investigational product candidate is Vafseo (vadadustat), an oral hypoxia-inducible factor prolyl hydroxylase, which is in Phase III development for the treatment of anemia due to chronic kidney disease (CKD) in dialysis-dependent and non-dialysis dependent patients. It offers Auryxia, a ferric citrate that is used to control the serum phosphorus levels in adult patients with DD-CKD on dialysis; and the treatment of iron deficiency anemia in adult patients with CKD not on dialysis. The company’s product pipeline includes AKB-9090, a drug targeting critical-care indications; and AKB-10108, a drug targeting conditions related to premature birth. It has collaboration agreements with Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma Corporation for the development and commercialization of vadadustat in Japan and other Asian countries, as well as research and license agreement with Janssen Pharmaceutica NV for the development and commercialization of hypoxia-inducible factor prolyl hydroxylase targeted compounds worldwide. Akebia Therapeutics, Inc. was incorporated in 2007 and is headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
About FibroGen
FibroGen, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company, discovers, develops, and commercializes therapeutics to treat serious unmet medical needs. Its lead product candidates are Pamrevlumab, a human monoclonal antibody targeting connective tissue growth factor that is in Phase III clinical development for the treatment of locally advanced pancreatic cancer; and Roxadustat, an oral small molecule inhibitor of hypoxia-inducible factor prolyl hydroxylase activity, which has completed Phase III clinical development for the treatment of anemia in chronic kidney disease in China, Europe, Japan, and other countries, as well as in Phase III clinical development for anemia related with myelodysplastic syndromes. The company has collaboration agreements with Astellas Pharma Inc. and AstraZeneca AB. FibroGen, Inc. was incorporated in 1993 and is headquartered in San Francisco, California.
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