Rocket Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:RCKT – Get Free Report) and Ironwood Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:IRWD – Get Free Report) are both medical companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their earnings, analyst recommendations, dividends, institutional ownership, valuation, risk and profitability.
Analyst Recommendations
This is a summary of recent recommendations and price targets for Rocket Pharmaceuticals and Ironwood Pharmaceuticals, as provided by MarketBeat.com.
| Sell Ratings | Hold Ratings | Buy Ratings | Strong Buy Ratings | Rating Score | |
| Rocket Pharmaceuticals | 0 | 0 | 8 | 0 | 3.00 |
| Ironwood Pharmaceuticals | 0 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 3.00 |
Rocket Pharmaceuticals currently has a consensus price target of $54.00, indicating a potential upside of 98.17%. Ironwood Pharmaceuticals has a consensus price target of $19.80, indicating a potential upside of 129.70%. Given Ironwood Pharmaceuticals’ higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Ironwood Pharmaceuticals is more favorable than Rocket Pharmaceuticals.
Volatility and Risk
Institutional and Insider Ownership
98.4% of Rocket Pharmaceuticals shares are held by institutional investors. 31.1% of Rocket Pharmaceuticals shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 13.1% of Ironwood Pharmaceuticals shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.
Profitability
This table compares Rocket Pharmaceuticals and Ironwood Pharmaceuticals’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.
| Net Margins | Return on Equity | Return on Assets | |
| Rocket Pharmaceuticals | N/A | -51.83% | -45.87% |
| Ironwood Pharmaceuticals | -226.37% | -185.45% | 21.00% |
Earnings and Valuation
This table compares Rocket Pharmaceuticals and Ironwood Pharmaceuticals’ top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.
| Gross Revenue | Price/Sales Ratio | Net Income | Earnings Per Share | Price/Earnings Ratio | |
| Rocket Pharmaceuticals | N/A | N/A | -$245.60 million | ($2.94) | -9.27 |
| Ironwood Pharmaceuticals | $442.73 million | 3.05 | -$1.00 billion | ($6.51) | -1.32 |
Rocket Pharmaceuticals has higher earnings, but lower revenue than Ironwood Pharmaceuticals. Rocket Pharmaceuticals is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Ironwood Pharmaceuticals, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Summary
Rocket Pharmaceuticals beats Ironwood Pharmaceuticals on 8 of the 12 factors compared between the two stocks.
About Rocket Pharmaceuticals
Rocket Pharmaceuticals, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, operates as a late-stage biotechnology company that focuses on developing gene therapies for rare and devastating diseases. It has three clinical-stage ex vivo lentiviral vector programs for fanconi anemia, a genetic defect in the bone marrow that reduces production of blood cells or promotes the production of faulty blood cells; leukocyte adhesion deficiency-I, a genetic disorder that causes the immune system to malfunction; and pyruvate kinase deficiency, a rare red blood cell autosomal recessive disorder that results in chronic non-spherocytic hemolytic anemia. The company also has a clinical stage in vivo adeno-associated virus program for Danon disease, a multi-organ lysosomal-associated disorder leading to early death due to heart failure; Plakophilin-2 Arrhythmogenic Cardiomyopathy, an inheritable cardiac disorder; and BAG3 Dilated Cardiomyopathy. It has license agreements with Centro de Investigaciones Energéticas, Medioambientales y Tecnológicas, Centro de Investigacion Biomedica En Red, and Fundacion Instituto de investigacion Sanitaria Fundacion Jimenez Diaz; UCL Business PLC; The Regents of the University of California; and REGENXBIO, Inc. Rocket Pharmaceuticals, Inc. was founded in 1999 and is headquartered in Cranbury, New Jersey.
About Ironwood Pharmaceuticals
Ironwood Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a healthcare company, focuses on the development and commercialization of gastrointestinal (GI) products. It markets linaclotide, a guanylate cyclase type-C (GC-C) agonist for the treatment of adults suffering from irritable bowel syndrome with constipation or chronic idiopathic constipation under the LINZESS name in the United States, Mexico, Japan, Saudi Arabia, and China, as well as under the CONSTELLA name in the Canada and European countries. The company is also developing IW-3300, a GC-C agonist for the treatment of visceral pain conditions, including interstitial cystitis/bladder pain syndrome and endometriosis; Apraglutide, a next-generation, long-acting synthetic peptide analog of glucagon-like peptide-2, as a differentiated therapeutic for rare diseases, including short bowel syndrome dependent on parenteral support and acute graft versus host disease; and CNP-104, an immune nanoparticle for the treatment of primary biliary cholangitis. The company has strategic partnerships with AbbVie Inc., AstraZeneca AB, and Astellas Pharma Inc. for the development and commercialization of linaclotide. The company was formerly known as Microbia, Inc. and changed its name to Ironwood Pharmaceuticals, Inc. in April 2008. Ironwood Pharmaceuticals, Inc. was incorporated in 1998 and is headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts.
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