Achieve Life Sciences (NASDAQ:ACHV) & United Therapeutics (NASDAQ:UTHR) Financial Comparison

Achieve Life Sciences (NASDAQ:ACHV) and United Therapeutics (NASDAQ:UTHR) are both medical companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their profitability, analyst recommendations, dividends, institutional ownership, earnings, risk and valuation.

Profitability

This table compares Achieve Life Sciences and United Therapeutics’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Achieve Life Sciences	N/A	-193.49%	-116.68%
United Therapeutics	40.36%	18.73%	16.49%

Institutional & Insider Ownership

33.5% of Achieve Life Sciences shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 94.1% of United Therapeutics shares are held by institutional investors. 3.0% of Achieve Life Sciences shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 10.3% of United Therapeutics shares are held by company 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.

Volatility and Risk

Achieve Life Sciences has a beta of 1.58, meaning that its share price is 58% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, United Therapeutics has a beta of 0.66, meaning that its share price is 34% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Achieve Life Sciences and United Therapeutics”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Achieve Life Sciences	N/A	N/A	-$39.83 million	($1.46)	-2.11
United Therapeutics	$2.88 billion	6.90	$1.20 billion	$25.62	17.17

United Therapeutics has higher revenue and earnings than Achieve Life Sciences. Achieve Life Sciences is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than United Therapeutics, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current ratings for Achieve Life Sciences and United Therapeutics, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Achieve Life Sciences	1	0	2	1	2.75
United Therapeutics	0	5	10	0	2.67

Achieve Life Sciences currently has a consensus target price of $12.00, indicating a potential upside of 289.61%. United Therapeutics has a consensus target price of $457.21, indicating a potential upside of 3.91%. Given Achieve Life Sciences’ stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities analysts clearly believe Achieve Life Sciences is more favorable than United Therapeutics.

Summary

United Therapeutics beats Achieve Life Sciences on 10 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Achieve Life Sciences

Achieve Life Sciences, Inc., a clinical-stage pharmaceutical company, develops and commercializes cytisinicline for smoking cessation and nicotine addiction. The company offers cytisinicline, a plant-based alkaloid that interacts with nicotine receptors in the brain that reduce the severity of nicotine withdrawal symptoms. It has license and supply agreement with Sopharma AD and University of Bristol Achieve Life Sciences, Inc. is based in Vancouver, Canada.

About United Therapeutics

United Therapeutics Corporation, a biotechnology company, engages in the development and commercialization of products to address the unmet medical needs of patients with chronic and life-threatening diseases in the United States and internationally. The company offers Tyvaso DPI, an inhaled dry powder via pre-filled and single-use cartridges; Tyvaso, an inhaled solution via ultrasonic nebulizer; Remodulin (treprostinil) injection to treat patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) to diminish symptoms associated with exercise; Orenitram, a tablet dosage form of treprostinil, to delay disease progression and improve exercise capacity in PAH patients; and Adcirca, an oral PDE-5 inhibitor to enhance the exercise ability in PAH patients. It also markets and sells Unituxin (dinutuximab) injection, a monoclonal antibody for treating high-risk neuroblastoma; and Remunity Pump, which contains a pump and separate controller for Remodulin. In addition, the company engages in developing RemoPro and Ralinepag for the treatment of PAH; Aurora-GT, a gene therapy product to rebuild the blood vessels in the lungs; and Nebulized Tyvaso, for the treatment of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, as well as xenografts, which are development-stage organ products. It has licensing and collaboration agreements with DEKA Research & Development Corp. to develop a semi-disposable system for the subcutaneous delivery of treprostinil; MannKind Corporation to develop and license treprostinil inhalation powder and the Dreamboat device; and Arena Pharmaceuticals, Inc. to develop Ralinepag. The company was incorporated in 1996 and is headquartered in Silver Spring, Maryland.