Reviewing Protara Therapeutics (NASDAQ:TARA) and Gilead Sciences (NASDAQ:GILD)

Gilead Sciences (NASDAQ:GILD) and Protara Therapeutics (NASDAQ:TARA) are both medical companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their dividends, earnings, profitability, institutional ownership, risk, valuation and analyst recommendations.

Profitability

This table compares Gilead Sciences and Protara Therapeutics’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Gilead Sciences	1.76%	24.34%	8.36%
Protara Therapeutics	N/A	-59.93%	-51.82%

Volatility & Risk

Gilead Sciences has a beta of 0.18, indicating that its stock price is 82% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Protara Therapeutics has a beta of 1.85, indicating that its stock price is 85% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

83.7% of Gilead Sciences shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 38.1% of Protara Therapeutics shares are held by institutional investors. 0.2% of Gilead Sciences shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 12.5% of Protara Therapeutics shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Gilead Sciences and Protara Therapeutics’ top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Gilead Sciences	$27.45 billion	3.34	$5.67 billion	$0.36	204.61
Protara Therapeutics	N/A	N/A	-$40.42 million	($3.74)	-0.51

Gilead Sciences has higher revenue and earnings than Protara Therapeutics. Protara Therapeutics is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Gilead Sciences, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and target prices for Gilead Sciences and Protara Therapeutics, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Gilead Sciences	0	12	7	0	2.37
Protara Therapeutics	0	0	2	0	3.00

Gilead Sciences presently has a consensus target price of $81.88, indicating a potential upside of 11.16%. Protara Therapeutics has a consensus target price of $26.50, indicating a potential upside of 1,294.74%. Given Protara Therapeutics’ stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Protara Therapeutics is more favorable than Gilead Sciences.

Summary

Gilead Sciences beats Protara Therapeutics on 9 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Gilead Sciences

Gilead Sciences, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company, discovers, develops, and commercializes medicines in the areas of unmet medical need in the United States, Europe, and internationally. The company provides Biktarvy, Genvoya, Descovy, Odefsey, Truvada, Complera/ Eviplera, Stribild, Sunlencs, and Atripla products for the treatment of HIV/AIDS; Veklury, an injection for intravenous use, for the treatment of COVID-19; and Epclusa, Harvoni, Vemlidy, and Viread for the treatment of viral hepatitis. It also offers Yescarta, Tecartus, and Trodelvy products for the treatment of oncology; Letairis, an oral formulation for the treatment of pulmonary arterial hypertension; and AmBisome, a liposomal formulation for the treatment of serious invasive fungal infections. The company has collaboration agreements with Arcus Biosciences, Inc.; Merck Sharp & Dohme Corp.; Pionyr Immunotherapeutics Inc.; Tizona Therapeutics, Inc.; Galapagos NV; Janssen Sciences Ireland Unlimited Company; Japan Tobacco, Inc.; Dragonfly Therapeutics, Inc.; Arcellx, Inc.; Everest Medicines; Merck & Co, Inc.; Tentarix Biotherapeutics Inc.; and Assembly Biosciences, Inc. It also has research collaboration, option, and license agreement with Merus N.V. for the discovery of novel dual tumor-associated antigens (TAA) targeting trispecific antibodies. The company was incorporated in 1987 and is headquartered in Foster City, California.

About Protara Therapeutics

Protara Therapeutics, Inc., a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, engages in advancing transformative therapies for the treatment of cancer and rare diseases. The company's lead program is TARA-002, an investigational cell therapy, which is in Phase II clinical trial for the treatment of non-muscle invasive bladder cancer and lymphatic malformations. It is also developing intravenous choline chloride, an investigational phospholipid substrate replacement therapy that is in Phase II clinical trial for patients receiving parenteral nutrition. The company is headquartered in New York, New York.