Head to Head Review: Altimmune (NASDAQ:ALT) and Aligos Therapeutics (NASDAQ:ALGS)
by Jessica Moore · The Cerbat GemAltimmune (NASDAQ:ALT – Get Free Report) and Aligos Therapeutics (NASDAQ:ALGS – Get Free Report) are both small-cap healthcare companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their profitability, valuation, analyst recommendations, risk, earnings, dividends and institutional ownership.
Risk & Volatility
Altimmune has a beta of 0.18, meaning that its share price is 82% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Aligos Therapeutics has a beta of 2.34, meaning that its share price is 134% more volatile than the S&P 500.
Insider and Institutional Ownership
78.0% of Altimmune shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 60.4% of Aligos Therapeutics shares are held by institutional investors. 1.6% of Altimmune shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 7.8% of Aligos Therapeutics shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.
Analyst Recommendations
This is a breakdown of recent ratings and recommmendations for Altimmune and Aligos Therapeutics, as provided by MarketBeat.
| Sell Ratings | Hold Ratings | Buy Ratings | Strong Buy Ratings | Rating Score | |
| Altimmune | 1 | 1 | 7 | 0 | 2.67 |
| Aligos Therapeutics | 1 | 0 | 5 | 1 | 2.86 |
Altimmune currently has a consensus target price of $14.33, suggesting a potential upside of 326.59%. Aligos Therapeutics has a consensus target price of $38.50, suggesting a potential upside of 568.40%. Given Aligos Therapeutics’ stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Aligos Therapeutics is more favorable than Altimmune.
Profitability
This table compares Altimmune and Aligos Therapeutics’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.
| Net Margins | Return on Equity | Return on Assets | |
| Altimmune | -214,860.98% | -31.41% | -26.96% |
| Aligos Therapeutics | -241.01% | -160.72% | -92.30% |
Earnings and Valuation
This table compares Altimmune and Aligos Therapeutics”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.
| Gross Revenue | Price/Sales Ratio | Net Income | Earnings Per Share | Price/Earnings Ratio | |
| Altimmune | $40,000.00 | 16,339.68 | -$88.09 million | ($0.78) | -4.31 |
| Aligos Therapeutics | $2.19 million | 16.41 | -$24.19 million | ($7.30) | -0.79 |
Aligos Therapeutics has higher revenue and earnings than Altimmune. Altimmune is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Aligos Therapeutics, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Summary
Aligos Therapeutics beats Altimmune on 9 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.
About Altimmune
Altimmune, Inc., a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company, focuses on developing treatments for obesity and liver diseases. The company's lead product candidate, pemvidutide, a GLP-1/glucagon dual receptor agonist that is in Phase 2 trial for the treatment of obesity and metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis. It is also developing HepTcell, an immunotherapeutic product candidate, which is in Phase 2 clinical trial for patients chronically infected with the hepatitis B virus. The company was formerly known as Vaxin Inc. and changed its name to Altimmune, Inc. in September 2015. Altimmune, Inc. was founded in 1997 is headquartered in Gaithersburg, Maryland.
About Aligos Therapeutics
Aligos Therapeutics, Inc., a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, focuses on the development of novel therapeutics to address unmet medical needs in viral and liver diseases. Its drug candidate, ALG-055009, a small molecule THR-ß agonist that is in the Phase 2a clinical trial for the treatment of non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH). The company also develops ALG-000184, a capsid assembly modulator, which is completed Phase 1b clinical trial to treat chronic hepatitis B (CHB); and ALG-125755, a siRNA drug candidate, which is in Phase I clinical trial for the treatment of CHB. In addition, it develops ALG-097558, which is in Phase 2 clinical trial for the treatment of coronavirus. The company has entered into license and research collaboration agreement with Merck to discover, research, optimize, and develop oligonucleotides directed against a NASH; license agreement with Emory University to provide hepatitis B virus capsid assembly modulator technology; license agreement with Luxna Biotech Co., Ltd. to develop and commercialize products containing oligonucleotides targeting hepatitis B virus genome; and research, licensing, and commercialization agreement with Katholieke Universiteit Leuven to develop coronavirus protease inhibitors. Aligos Therapeutics, Inc. was incorporated in 2018 and is headquartered in South San Francisco, California.