Head to Head Contrast: Ironwood Pharmaceuticals (IRWD) vs. Its Rivals

Ironwood Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:IRWD) is one of 247 public companies in the “MED – DRUGS” industry, but how does it compare to its rivals? We will compare Ironwood Pharmaceuticals to similar companies based on the strength of its valuation, profitability, dividends, analyst recommendations, risk, institutional ownership and earnings.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current recommendations for Ironwood Pharmaceuticals and its rivals, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Ironwood Pharmaceuticals	1	3	2	1	2.43
Ironwood Pharmaceuticals Competitors	2885	4048	10319	468	2.47

Ironwood Pharmaceuticals currently has a consensus price target of $6.23, suggesting a potential upside of 64.47%. As a group, “MED – DRUGS” companies have a potential upside of 54.21%. Given Ironwood Pharmaceuticals’ higher probable upside, equities analysts plainly believe Ironwood Pharmaceuticals is more favorable than its rivals.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Ironwood Pharmaceuticals and its rivals revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
Ironwood Pharmaceuticals	$296.15 million	$24.02 million	29.15
Ironwood Pharmaceuticals Competitors	$1.17 billion	$98.20 million	-4.35

Ironwood Pharmaceuticals’ rivals have higher revenue and earnings than Ironwood Pharmaceuticals. Ironwood Pharmaceuticals is trading at a higher price-to-earnings ratio than its rivals, indicating that it is currently more expensive than other companies in its industry.

Profitability

This table compares Ironwood Pharmaceuticals and its rivals’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Ironwood Pharmaceuticals	8.11%	-13.72%	10.95%
Ironwood Pharmaceuticals Competitors	-22,657.44%	-150.67%	-22.80%

Insider and Institutional Ownership

43.9% of shares of all “MED – DRUGS” companies are owned by institutional investors. 12.7% of Ironwood Pharmaceuticals shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 13.2% of shares of all “MED – DRUGS” companies are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Risk & Volatility

Ironwood Pharmaceuticals has a beta of 0.17, meaning that its stock price is 83% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Ironwood Pharmaceuticals’ rivals have a beta of -0.38, meaning that their average stock price is 138% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Ironwood Pharmaceuticals beats its rivals on 7 of the 13 factors compared.

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.