Alkermes (NASDAQ:ALKS) versus Vericel (NASDAQ:VCEL) Head-To-Head Contrast

Alkermes (NASDAQ:ALKS) and Vericel (NASDAQ:VCEL) are both mid-cap healthcare companies, but which is the superior stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, profitability, analyst recommendations, dividends, earnings, risk and valuation.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Alkermes and Vericel”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Alkermes	$1.67 billion	4.56	$241.66 million	$0.38	119.32
Vericel	$306.30 million	6.73	$16.52 million	$0.47	85.66

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

Insider and Institutional Ownership

95.2% of Alkermes shares are held by institutional investors. 4.6% of Alkermes shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 7.6% of Vericel shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent ratings and recommmendations for Alkermes and Vericel, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Alkermes	1	5	11	1	2.67
Vericel	0	2	4	0	2.67

Alkermes presently has a consensus price target of $54.38, indicating a potential upside of 19.93%. Vericel has a consensus price target of $57.20, indicating a potential upside of 42.08%. Given Vericel’s higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Vericel is more favorable than Alkermes.

Volatility & Risk

Alkermes has a beta of 0.32, suggesting that its stock price is 68% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Vericel has a beta of 1.02, suggesting that its stock price is 2% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Alkermes and Vericel’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Alkermes	3.96%	4.15%	2.19%
Vericel	7.91%	6.91%	5.02%

Summary

Vericel beats Alkermes on 8 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Alkermes

Alkermes plc, a biopharmaceutical company, researches, develops, and commercializes pharmaceutical products to address unmet medical needs of patients in therapeutic areas in the United States, Ireland, and internationally. It has a portfolio of proprietary commercial products for the treatment of alcohol dependence, opioid dependence, schizophrenia and bipolar I disorder and a pipeline of clinical and preclinical product candidates in development for neurological disorders. Its marketed products include ARISTADA, an intramuscular injectable suspension for the treatment of schizophrenia; ARISTADA INITIO for the treatment of schizophrenia in adults; VIVITROL for the treatment of alcohol and prevention of opioid dependence; and LYBALVI, an oral atypical antipsychotic drug candidate for the treatment of adults with schizophrenia and bipolar I disorder. It has collaboration agreements primarily with Janssen Pharmaceutica N.V., Janssen Pharmaceutica Inc, and Janssen Pharmaceutica International. The company also offers proprietary technology platforms to third parties to enable them to develop, commercialize, and manufacture products. Alkermes plc was founded in 1987 and is headquartered in Dublin, Ireland.

About Vericel

Vericel Corporation, a commercial-stage biopharmaceutical company, engages in the research, development, manufacture, and distribution of cellular therapies for sports medicine and severe burn care markets in North America. The company markets autologous cell therapy products comprising MACI, an autologous cultured chondrocytes on porcine collagen membrane for the repair of symptomatic, and single or multiple full-thickness cartilage defects of the knee; Epicel, a permanent skin replacement humanitarian use device for the treatment of adult and pediatric patients with deep-dermal or full-thickness burns; and NexoBrid, a biological orphan product for eschar removal in adults with deep partial-thickness and/or full-thickness thermal burns. The company was formerly known as Aastrom Biosciences, Inc. Vericel Corporation was incorporated in 1989 and is headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts.