Critical Survey: Atea Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:AVIR) vs. Regeneron Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:REGN)

Regeneron Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:REGN) and Atea Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:AVIR) are both medical companies, but which is the superior stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their valuation, analyst recommendations, dividends, earnings, profitability, risk and institutional ownership.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current ratings and recommmendations for Regeneron Pharmaceuticals and Atea Pharmaceuticals, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Regeneron Pharmaceuticals	1	8	15	3	2.74
Atea Pharmaceuticals	1	1	1	1	2.50

Regeneron Pharmaceuticals currently has a consensus target price of $779.45, indicating a potential upside of 0.41%. Atea Pharmaceuticals has a consensus target price of $6.00, indicating a potential upside of 72.41%. Given Atea Pharmaceuticals’ higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Atea Pharmaceuticals is more favorable than Regeneron Pharmaceuticals.

Profitability

This table compares Regeneron Pharmaceuticals and Atea Pharmaceuticals’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Regeneron Pharmaceuticals	32.13%	13.76%	10.71%
Atea Pharmaceuticals	N/A	-38.43%	-35.88%

Volatility & Risk

Regeneron Pharmaceuticals has a beta of 0.39, suggesting that its share price is 61% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Atea Pharmaceuticals has a beta of 0.08, suggesting that its share price is 92% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Regeneron Pharmaceuticals and Atea Pharmaceuticals”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Regeneron Pharmaceuticals	$14.20 billion	5.74	$4.41 billion	$41.76	18.59
Atea Pharmaceuticals	N/A	N/A	-$168.38 million	($1.77)	-1.97

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

Insider and Institutional Ownership

83.3% of Regeneron Pharmaceuticals shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 86.7% of Atea Pharmaceuticals shares are held by institutional investors. 7.0% of Regeneron Pharmaceuticals shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 18.1% of Atea Pharmaceuticals shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Summary

Regeneron Pharmaceuticals beats Atea Pharmaceuticals on 11 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Regeneron Pharmaceuticals

Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc. discovers, invents, develops, manufactures, and commercializes medicines for treating various diseases worldwide. The company's products include EYLEA injection to treat wet age-related macular degeneration and diabetic macular edema; myopic choroidal neovascularization; diabetic retinopathy; neovascular glaucoma; and retinopathy of prematurity. It also provides Dupixent injection to treat atopic dermatitis and asthma in adults and pediatrics; Libtayo injection to treat metastatic or locally advanced cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma; Praluent injection for heterozygous familial hypercholesterolemia or clinical atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease in adults; REGEN-COV for covid-19; and Kevzara solution for treating rheumatoid arthritis in adults. In addition, the company offers Inmazeb injection for infection caused by Zaire ebolavirus; ARCALYST injection for cryopyrin-associated periodic syndromes, including familial cold auto-inflammatory syndrome and muckle-wells syndrome; and ZALTRAP injection for intravenous infusion to treat metastatic colorectal cancer; and develops product candidates for treating patients with eye, allergic and inflammatory, cardiovascular and metabolic, infectious, and rare diseases; and cancer, pain, and hematologic conditions. It has collaboration with Mammoth Biosciences, Inc. to research, develop and commercialize in vivo CRISPR-based gene editing therapies for multiple tissues and cell types. The company was incorporated in 1988 and is headquartered in Tarrytown, New York.

About Atea Pharmaceuticals

Atea Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, discovers, develops, and commercializes antiviral therapeutics for patients with viral infections. Its lead product candidate is AT-527, an oral antiviral candidate that is in Phase 3 SUNRISE-3 clinical trial for the treatment of patients with COVID-19. The company also develops bemnifosbuvir in combination with ruzasvir, which is in Phase 2 clinical trial, for the treatment of hepatitis C virus (HCV); and a protease inhibitor for the treatment of COVID-19. It has a license agreement with MSD International GmbH for the development, manufacture, and commercialization of Ruzasvir, an NS5A inhibitor, for the treatment of HCV. Atea Pharmaceuticals, Inc. was incorporated in 2012 and is headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts.