Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated (NASDAQ:VRTX) and Viking Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ:VKTX), both competing one another are Biotechnology companies. We will contrast their analyst recommendations, profitability, institutional ownership, risk, dividends, earnings and valuation.

Earnings & Valuation

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated	3.05B	15.33	2.10B	2.07	91.94
Viking Therapeutics Inc.	N/A	0.00	22.06M	-0.45	0.00

Table 1 showcases the gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation of Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated and Viking Therapeutics Inc.

Profitability

Table 2 provides us Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated and Viking Therapeutics Inc.’s return on equity, net margins and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated	68.85%	67.5%	43.8%
Viking Therapeutics Inc.	0.00%	-15.8%	-15.1%

Volatility and Risk

Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated is 66.00% more volatile than Standard and Poor’s 500 due to its 1.66 beta. Viking Therapeutics Inc.’s 174.00% more volatile than Standard and Poor’s 500 volatility due to the company’s 2.74 beta.

Liquidity

3.4 and 3.3 are the respective Current Ratio and a Quick Ratio of Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated. Its rival Viking Therapeutics Inc.’s Current and Quick Ratios are 64.6 and 64.6 respectively. Viking Therapeutics Inc. has a better chance of clearing its pay short and long-term debts than Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated.

Analyst Ratings

The following table given below contains the ratings and recommendations for Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated and Viking Therapeutics Inc.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated	0	2	8	2.80
Viking Therapeutics Inc.	0	0	4	3.00

Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated’s consensus price target is $210, while its potential upside is 14.89%. Competitively the consensus price target of Viking Therapeutics Inc. is $23.4, which is potential 150.27% upside. Based on the analysts view we can conclude, Viking Therapeutics Inc. is looking more favorable than Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

Institutional investors owned 98.1% of Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated shares and 68% of Viking Therapeutics Inc. shares. 0.1% are Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated’s share owned by insiders. Insiders Competitively, owned 11% of Viking Therapeutics Inc. shares.

Performance

In this table we provide 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)
Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated	1.99%	-0.46%	6.54%	2.8%	14.6%	14.68%
Viking Therapeutics Inc.	1.05%	6.62%	-23.68%	-27.98%	39.2%	13.73%

For the past year Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated’s stock price has bigger growth than Viking Therapeutics Inc.

Summary

On 9 of the 12 factors Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated beats Viking Therapeutics Inc.

Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated discovers, develops, manufactures, and commercializes medicines for serious diseases. The company focuses on developing and commercializing therapies for the treatment of cystic fibrosis (CF) and advancing its research and development programs. It markets ORKAMBI (lumacaftor in combination with ivacaftor) for the treatment of patients with CF 12 years of age and older who have two copies (homozygous) of the F508del mutation in their cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) gene; and KALYDECO (ivacaftor) for the treatment of patients with CF 2 years of age and older who have the G551D mutation or other specified mutations in their CFTR gene. The company also develops Tezacaftor (VX-661), a corrector compound that is in a Phase III development program in combination with ivacaftor in multiple CF patients; VX-152 and VX-440 that are CFTR corrector compounds in Phase II clinical trials, as well as VX-659 and VX-445 that are CFTR corrector compounds in Phase I clinical trials; and VX-371, an investigational epithelial sodium channel, which is in a Phase II development program. In addition, it engages in the research and mid-and early-stage development programs in the areas of oncology, pain, and neurology. The company sells its products primarily to specialty pharmacy providers and wholesalers in North America, as well as government-owned and supported customers internationally. Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated has collaborations with Cystic Fibrosis Foundation Therapeutics Incorporated; Parion Sciences, Inc.; CRISPR Therapeutics AG; Moderna Therapeutics, Inc.; BioAxone Biosciences, Inc.; Merck KGaA; and Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Inc. The company was founded in 1989 and is headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts.

Viking Therapeutics, Inc., a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, focuses on the development of therapies for metabolic and endocrine disorders. Its lead clinical program is VK5211, an orally available drug candidate, which is in a phase II clinical trials for acute rehabilitation following non-elective hip fracture surgery. The company also develops VK2809, an orally available, tissue, and receptor-subtype selective agonist of the thyroid beta receptor for the treatment of hypercholesterolemia and fatty liver disease, as well as for the orphan indication glycogen storage disease type Ia; and VK0214 for the treatment of orphan indication X-linked adrenoleukodystrophy, a rare X-linked, inherited neurological disorder. In addition, it develops VK0612, an orally available drug candidate for the treatment of type 2 diabetes; small molecule agonists of the erythropoietin receptor for the treatment of anemia; and tissue-selective inhibitors of diacylglycerol acyltransferase-1 for the treatment of obesity and dyslipidemia. Viking Therapeutics, Inc. was founded in 2012 and is headquartered in San Diego, California.