As Biotechnology companies, Vital Therapies Inc. (NASDAQ:VTL) and Vanda Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ:VNDA) are our subject to compare. And more specifically their risk, analyst recommendations, profitability, dividends, institutional ownership, earnings and valuation.

Earnings & Valuation

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Vital Therapies Inc.	N/A	0.00	41.48M	-1.27	0.00
Vanda Pharmaceuticals Inc.	193.12M	5.02	25.21M	0.47	42.39

Demonstrates Vital Therapies Inc. and Vanda Pharmaceuticals Inc. earnings per share, gross revenue and valuation.

Profitability

Table 2 provides the return on assets, net margins and return on equity of the two firms.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Vital Therapies Inc.	0.00%	-167.4%	-132.2%
Vanda Pharmaceuticals Inc.	13.05%	9.8%	8%

Risk & Volatility

Vital Therapies Inc. is 255.00% more volatile than Standard & Poor’s 500 due to its 3.55 beta. From a competition point of view, Vanda Pharmaceuticals Inc. has a 0.51 beta which is 49.00% less volatile compared to Standard & Poor’s 500.

Liquidity

The current Quick Ratio of Vital Therapies Inc. is 3.3 while its Current Ratio is 3.3. Meanwhile, Vanda Pharmaceuticals Inc. has a Current Ratio of 5.6 while its Quick Ratio is 5.6. Vanda Pharmaceuticals Inc. is better positioned to pay off its short-term and long-term debts than Vital Therapies Inc.

Analyst Recommendations

The Recommendations and Ratings for Vital Therapies Inc. and Vanda Pharmaceuticals Inc. are featured in the next table.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Vital Therapies Inc.	0	0	0	0.00
Vanda Pharmaceuticals Inc.	0	2	4	2.67

Meanwhile, Vanda Pharmaceuticals Inc.’s average price target is $40.17, while its potential upside is 118.08%.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

Roughly 15.7% of Vital Therapies Inc. shares are held by institutional investors while 0% of Vanda Pharmaceuticals Inc. are owned by institutional investors. Insiders held 0.1% of Vital Therapies Inc. shares. Competitively, insiders own roughly 3.1% of Vanda Pharmaceuticals Inc.’s 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)
Vital Therapies Inc.	13.49%	7.82%	-23.68%	-97.3%	-95.65%	27.32%
Vanda Pharmaceuticals Inc.	-3.88%	-26.87%	-17.51%	-2.51%	6.1%	-24.07%

For the past year Vital Therapies Inc. has 27.32% stronger performance while Vanda Pharmaceuticals Inc. has -24.07% weaker performance.

Summary

Vanda Pharmaceuticals Inc. beats on 10 of the 11 factors Vital Therapies Inc.

Vital Therapies, Inc., a biotherapeutic company, focuses on developing a human hepatic cell-based therapy targeting the treatment of acute forms of liver failure in the United States. Its ELAD system is an extracorporeal human allogeneic cellular liver therapy that is in Phase III clinical trials to allow the patientÂ’s own liver to potentially regenerate to a healthy state or to stabilize the patient until transplant. The company was formerly known as Vitagen Acquisition Corp. and changed its name to Vital Therapies, Inc. in June 2003. Vital Therapies, Inc. was founded in 2003 and is headquartered in San Diego, California.

Vanda Pharmaceuticals Inc., a biopharmaceutical company, focuses on the development and commercialization of products for the treatment of central nervous system disorders. The companyÂ’s marketed products include HETLIOZ (tasimelteon), a product for the treatment of non-24-hour sleep-wake disorder; and Fanapt (iloperidone), a product for the treatment of schizophrenia. Its clinical development products include Tradipitant (VLY-686), a small molecule neurokinin-1 receptor antagonist that is under the clinical development for the treatment of chronic pruritus in atopic dermatitis and gastroparesis; Trichostatin A, a small molecule histone deacetylase inhibitor, which is in development for the treatment of hematologic malignancies; and AQW051, a Phase II alpha-7 nicotinic acetylcholine receptor partial agonist. The company markets its products in the United States, Canada, Europe Union, Israel, and Mexico. Vanda Pharmaceuticals Inc. was incorporated in 2002 and is headquartered in Washington, the District of Columbia.