Critical Contrast: Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) vs. Nuvalent (NASDAQ:NUVL)

Nuvalent (NASDAQ:NUVL) and Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) are both medical companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, analyst recommendations, valuation, institutional ownership, profitability, earnings and dividends.

Volatility & Risk

Nuvalent has a beta of 1.14, suggesting that its stock price is 14% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Amgen has a beta of 0.41, suggesting that its stock price is 59% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Nuvalent and Amgen”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Nuvalent	N/A	N/A	-$425.38 million	($6.06)	-20.42
Amgen	$36.75 billion	5.49	$7.71 billion	$14.37	26.04

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

Institutional & Insider Ownership

97.3% of Nuvalent shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 76.5% of Amgen shares are owned by institutional investors. 5.0% of Nuvalent shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.9% of Amgen shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Profitability

This table compares Nuvalent and Amgen’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Nuvalent	N/A	-40.11%	-35.43%
Amgen	20.96%	137.41%	13.28%

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current ratings and recommmendations for Nuvalent and Amgen, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Nuvalent	1	15	4	0	2.15
Amgen	2	15	11	2	2.43

Nuvalent currently has a consensus target price of $127.73, indicating a potential upside of 3.23%. Amgen has a consensus target price of $355.50, indicating a potential downside of 4.98%. Given Nuvalent’s higher probable upside, equities research analysts plainly believe Nuvalent is more favorable than Amgen.

Summary

Amgen beats Nuvalent on 10 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Nuvalent

Nuvalent, Inc., a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company, engages in the development of therapies for patients with cancer. Its lead product candidates are NVL-520, a novel ROS1-selective inhibitor to address the clinical challenges of emergent treatment resistance, central nervous system (CNS)-related adverse events, and brain metastases that may limit the use of ROS1 tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) for patients with ROS proto-oncogene 1 (ROS1)-positive non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) which is under the phase 2 portion of the ARROS-1 Phase 1/2 clinical trial; NVL-655, a brain-penetrant ALK-selective inhibitor, to address the clinical challenges of emergent treatment resistance, CNS-related adverse events, and brain metastases that might limit the use of first-, second-, and third-generation ALK inhibitors that is under the phase 2 portion of the ALKOVE-1 Phase 1/2 clinical trial; and NVL-330, a brain-penetrant human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2)-selective inhibitor designed to treat tumors driven by HER2ex20, brain metastases, and avoiding treatment-limiting adverse events including due to off-target inhibition of wild-type EGFR, which is expected to initiate phase 1 trial. The company was incorporated in 2017 and is headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

About Amgen

Amgen Inc. discovers, develops, manufactures, and delivers human therapeutics worldwide. The company's principal products include Enbrel to treat plaque psoriasis, rheumatoid arthritis, and psoriatic arthritis; Otezla for the treatment of adult patients with plaque psoriasis, psoriatic arthritis, and oral ulcers associated with Behçet's disease; Prolia to treat postmenopausal women with osteoporosis; XGEVA for skeletal-related events prevention; Repatha, which reduces the risks of myocardial infarction, stroke, and coronary revascularization; Nplate for the treatment of patients with immune thrombocytopenia; KYPROLIS to treat patients with relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma; Aranesp to treat a lower-than-normal number of red blood cells and anemia; EVENITY for the treatment of osteoporosis in postmenopausal for men and women; Vectibix to treat patients with wild-type RAS metastatic colorectal cancer; BLINCYTO for the treatment of patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia; TEPEZZA to treat thyroid eye disease; and KRYSTEXXA for the treatment of chronic refractory gout. It also markets other products, including Neulasta, MVASI, AMJEVITA/AMGEVITA, TEZSPIRE, Parsabiv, Aimovig, LUMAKRAS/LUMYKRAS, EPOGEN, KANJINTI, TAVNEOS, RAVICTI, UPLIZNA and PROCYSBI. The company serves healthcare providers, including physicians or their clinics, dialysis centers, hospitals, and pharmacies. It distributes its products through pharmaceutical wholesale distributors, as well as direct-to-consumer channels. The company has collaboration agreements with AstraZeneca plc for the development and commercialization of TEZSPIRE; Novartis Pharma AG to develop and commercialize Aimovig; UCB for the development and commercialization of EVENITY; Kyowa Kirin Co., Ltd. for rocatinlimab development and commercialization; and BeiGene, Ltd. for oncology products expansion and development. Amgen Inc. was incorporated in 1980 and is headquartered in Thousand Oaks, California.