As Biotechnology businesses, Neurocrine Biosciences Inc. (NASDAQ:NBIX) and Vital Therapies Inc. (NASDAQ:VTL), are affected by contrast. This especially applies to their risk, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, profitability, dividends, earnings and valuation.

Earnings and Valuation

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Neurocrine Biosciences Inc.	451.24M	17.36	21.11M	0.18	435.91
Vital Therapies Inc.	N/A	0.00	36.58M	-1.27	0.00

Table 1 demonstrates Neurocrine Biosciences Inc. and Vital Therapies Inc.’s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Neurocrine Biosciences Inc.	4.68%	5.1%	2.4%
Vital Therapies Inc.	0.00%	-167.4%	-132.2%

Volatility & Risk

Neurocrine Biosciences Inc. is 86.00% more volatile than S&P 500 due to its 1.86 beta. Competitively, Vital Therapies Inc.’s beta is 3.55 which is 255.00% more volatile than S&P 500.

Liquidity

The Current Ratio and Quick Ratio of Neurocrine Biosciences Inc. are 8.4 and 8.2 respectively. Its competitor Vital Therapies Inc.’s Current Ratio is 3.3 and its Quick Ratio is 3.3. Neurocrine Biosciences Inc. can pay off short and long-term obligations better than Vital Therapies Inc.

Analyst Ratings

Neurocrine Biosciences Inc. and Vital Therapies Inc. Recommendations and Ratings are available in the next table.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Neurocrine Biosciences Inc.	0	3	6	2.67
Vital Therapies Inc.	0	0	0	0.00

Neurocrine Biosciences Inc.’s upside potential is 26.10% at a $108.75 average price target.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

Institutional investors held 0% of Neurocrine Biosciences Inc. shares and 15.7% of Vital Therapies Inc. shares. Neurocrine Biosciences Inc.’s share held by insiders are 1.2%. Comparatively, Vital Therapies Inc. has 0.1% of it’s share held by insiders.

Performance

Here are 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)
Neurocrine Biosciences Inc.	-2.53%	-10.56%	-11.62%	-35.15%	-6.23%	10.49%
Vital Therapies Inc.	13.49%	7.82%	-23.68%	-97.3%	-95.65%	27.32%

For the past year Neurocrine Biosciences Inc. was less bullish than Vital Therapies Inc.

Summary

Neurocrine Biosciences Inc. beats on 10 of the 11 factors Vital Therapies Inc.

Neurocrine Biosciences, Inc. discovers and develops pharmaceuticals for the treatment of neurological and endocrine-related diseases and disorders in the United States and internationally. The company’s lead products include INGREZZA (valbenazine), a vesicular monoamine transporter 2 inhibitor (VMAT2) used for the treatment of movement disorders; elagolix, a gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) antagonist that is in Phase III clinical trials used for women’s health; and opicapone, a catechol-O-methyltransferase inhibitor, which is in Phase III clinical trials used for in adjunct therapy and preparations of levodopa/DOPA decarboxylase inhibitors for adult patients with Parkinson’s disease. It is also developing NBI-640756 that is in Phase I clinical trials used for the treatment of essential tremor; and NBI-74788, which is in Phase I clinical trials used for the treatment of classic congenital adrenal hyperplasia. In addition, the company’s research programs comprise VMAT2 Inhibitors for movement disorders, bipolar disorders, and schizophrenia; and G Protein-Coupled Receptors and Ion Channels for epilepsy, essential tremor, pain, and other Indications. It has collaborations with AbbVie Inc. to develop and commercialize elagolix and GnRH antagonists for women’s and men’s health; Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma Corporation to develop and commercialize INGREZZA for movement disorders; and BIAL – Portela & Ca, S.A. to develop and commercialize opicapone for the treatment of human diseases and conditions, including Parkinson’s disease. Neurocrine Biosciences, Inc. was founded in 1992 and is headquartered in San Diego, California.

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.