Athersys Inc. (NASDAQ:ATHX) and Altimmune Inc. (NASDAQ:ALT) compete against each other in the Biotechnology sector. We will compare them and contrast their profitability, analyst recommendations, risk, dividends, earnings and valuation, institutional ownership.

Valuation & Earnings

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Athersys Inc.	23.95M	9.00	26.06M	-0.21	0.00
Altimmune Inc.	10.55M	2.05	28.83M	-38.81	0.00

Table 1 shows the gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation for Athersys Inc. and Altimmune Inc.

Profitability

Table 2 hightlights the return on equity, return on assets and net margins of the two companies.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Athersys Inc.	-108.81%	-58.7%	-44.6%
Altimmune Inc.	-273.27%	-74.2%	-50.4%

Volatility and Risk

Athersys Inc.’s volatility measures that it’s 150.00% less volatile than Standard & Poor’s 500 due to its -0.5 beta. In other hand, Altimmune Inc. has beta of 2.63 which is 163.00% more volatile than Standard & Poor’s 500.

Liquidity

Athersys Inc.’s Current Ratio and Quick Ratio are 4.6 and 4.6 respectively. The Current Ratio and Quick Ratio of its competitor Altimmune Inc. are 1.4 and 1.4 respectively. Athersys Inc. therefore has a better chance of paying off short and long-term obligations compared to Altimmune Inc.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

Roughly 22.7% of Athersys Inc. shares are owned by institutional investors while 4.1% of Altimmune Inc. are owned by institutional investors. Athersys Inc.’s share owned by insiders are 2.2%. Insiders Competitively, owned 14.29% of Altimmune Inc. shares.

Performance

In this table we show the Weekly, Monthly, Quarterly, Half Yearly, Yearly and YTD Performance of both pretenders.

	Performance (W)	Performance (M)	Performance (Q)	Performance (HY)	Performance (Y)	Performance (YTD)
Athersys Inc.	2.6%	0.51%	2.6%	-19.26%	5.91%	8.84%
Altimmune Inc.	-14.21%	-23.38%	-64.6%	-81.67%	-94.26%	-94.84%

For the past year Athersys Inc. has 8.84% stronger performance while Altimmune Inc. has -94.84% weaker performance.

Summary

On 10 of the 10 factors Athersys Inc. beats Altimmune Inc.

Athersys, Inc., a biotechnology company, focuses on the research and development activities in the field of regenerative medicine. Its clinical development programs are focused on treating neurological conditions, cardiovascular diseases, inflammatory and immune disorders, and pulmonary and other conditions. The companyÂ’s lead platform product includes MultiStem cell therapy, an allogeneic stem cell product, which has completed Phase 2 study for treating patients suffering from moderate and severe ischemic stroke; that is in Phase 2 clinical study for treating patients with acute myocardial infarction; and, which is in Phase 1/2 clinical study for treating patients with acute respiratory distress syndrome, as well as completed Phase 1 clinical study for patients suffering from leukemia or various other blood-borne cancers. It also develops MultiStem cell therapy to promote tissue repair and healing for animal patients; and 5HT2c agonists for the treatment of obesity and other conditions. The company has license and collaboration agreements with Healios K.K. and Chugai Pharmaceuticals Co., Ltd. to develop and commercialize MultiStem cell therapy for ischemic stroke; RTI Surgical, Inc. to develop and commercialize biologic implants for orthopedic applications in the bone graft substitutes market; University of Minnesota to develop MultiStem cell therapy platform; and Bristol-Myers Squibb Company to provide cell lines expressing well validated drug targets for compound screening and development. Athersys, Inc. was founded in 1995 and is headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio.

Altimmune, Inc., a clinical stage immunotherapeutic biotechnology company, designs and develops immunotherapeutic products for treating acute respiratory infections, chronic viral infections, and cancer. The company develops NasoVAX, an intranasally administered recombinant influenza vaccine that has completed Phase I clinical trials; and HepTcell, an immunotherapy for patients chronically infected with the hepatitis B virus, which is in Phase I clinical trials. Its preclinical stage products include NasoShield, a vaccine for the prevention of anthrax disease following inhalation of pathogen spores; and Oncosyn, an immunotherapeutic for treating solid cancer indications, such as lung, colorectal, melanoma, breast, ovarian, and others. The company was formerly known as Vaxin Inc. Altimmune, Inc. was founded in 1997 and is based in Gaithersburg, Maryland.