GRAIL (NASDAQ:GRAL – Get Free Report) and Alector (NASDAQ:ALEC – Get Free Report) are both medical companies, but which is the better business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their valuation, earnings, institutional ownership, profitability, dividends, risk and analyst recommendations.
Analyst Ratings
This is a summary of recent ratings and recommmendations for GRAIL and Alector, as reported by MarketBeat.
| Sell Ratings | Hold Ratings | Buy Ratings | Strong Buy Ratings | Rating Score | |
| GRAIL | 1 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 2.00 |
| Alector | 3 | 7 | 1 | 0 | 1.82 |
GRAIL presently has a consensus price target of $60.00, indicating a potential downside of 25.64%. Alector has a consensus price target of $3.00, indicating a potential upside of 127.27%. Given Alector’s higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Alector is more favorable than GRAIL.
Earnings and Valuation
| Gross Revenue | Price/Sales Ratio | Net Income | Earnings Per Share | Price/Earnings Ratio | |
| GRAIL | $125.60 million | 23.16 | -$2.03 billion | ($13.11) | -6.15 |
| Alector | $100.56 million | 1.33 | -$119.05 million | ($1.16) | -1.14 |
Alector has lower revenue, but higher earnings than GRAIL. GRAIL is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Alector, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Volatility & Risk
GRAIL has a beta of 4.31, meaning that its stock price is 331% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Alector has a beta of 0.93, meaning that its stock price is 7% less volatile than the S&P 500.
Profitability
This table compares GRAIL and Alector’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.
| Net Margins | Return on Equity | Return on Assets | |
| GRAIL | -329.86% | -16.64% | -14.02% |
| Alector | -142.10% | -112.06% | -26.37% |
Institutional and Insider Ownership
85.8% of Alector shares are held by institutional investors. 9.7% of Alector shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.
Summary
Alector beats GRAIL on 7 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.
About GRAIL
GRAIL, Inc. operates as a commercial-stage healthcare company, which engages in the development of a technology for early detection of cancer. It utilizes machine learning, software, and automation to detect and identify multiple deadly cancer types in earlier stages. The company was founded by Jeffrey T. Huber, William H. Rastetter, Mostafa Ronaghi, and Richard D. Klausner on September 11, 2015 and is headquartered in Menlo Park, CA.
About Alector
Alector, Inc., a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company, develops therapies for the treatment of neurodegeneration diseases. Its products include AL001, an immune activity in the brain with genetic links to multiple neurodegenerative disorders, which is in Phase III clinical trial for the treatment of frontotemporal dementia, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis diseases; and AL101 that is in Phase I clinical trial for the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases. The company also offers AL002, a product candidate that is in Phase II clinical trial for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease. Alector, Inc. has a collaboration agreement with Adimab, LLC for the research and development of antibodies; and a strategic collaboration agreement with GlaxoSmithKline plc for the development and commercialization of monoclonal antibodies, such as AL001 and AL101 to treat neurodegenerative diseases. The company was founded in 2013 and is headquartered in South San Francisco, California.
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