Analyzing Qiagen (NYSE:QGEN) and Atyr PHARMA (NASDAQ:ATYR)

Atyr PHARMA (NASDAQ:ATYR) and Qiagen (NYSE:QGEN) are both medical companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, valuation, institutional ownership, risk, profitability, dividends and earnings.

Profitability

This table compares Atyr PHARMA and Qiagen’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Atyr PHARMA	N/A	-79.44%	-59.16%
Qiagen	4.23%	13.92%	8.40%

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Atyr PHARMA and Qiagen”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Atyr PHARMA	$235,000.00	1,425.23	-$50.39 million	($0.94)	-4.24
Qiagen	$1.98 billion	4.36	$83.59 million	$0.36	108.06

Qiagen has higher revenue and earnings than Atyr PHARMA. Atyr PHARMA is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Qiagen, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

61.7% of Atyr PHARMA shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 70.0% of Qiagen shares are held by institutional investors. 3.7% of Atyr PHARMA shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 9.0% of Qiagen shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Risk and Volatility

Atyr PHARMA has a beta of 0.98, suggesting that its share price is 2% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Qiagen has a beta of 0.44, suggesting that its share price is 56% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent ratings and recommmendations for Atyr PHARMA and Qiagen, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Atyr PHARMA	0	0	6	1	3.14
Qiagen	0	7	3	0	2.30

Atyr PHARMA currently has a consensus target price of $18.60, suggesting a potential upside of 366.17%. Qiagen has a consensus target price of $47.71, suggesting a potential upside of 22.63%. Given Atyr PHARMA’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Atyr PHARMA is more favorable than Qiagen.

Summary

Qiagen beats Atyr PHARMA on 9 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Atyr PHARMA

aTyr Pharma, Inc. engages in the discovery and development of medicines based on novel biological pathways. Its product pipeline includes ATYR1923, ATYR2810, NRP2 mAbs, and AARS-1, DARS-1. The company was founded by Paul Schimmel, Xiang-Lei Yang and Bruce Beutler on September 8, 2005 and is headquartered in San Diego, CA.

About Qiagen

QIAGEN NV is a holding company, which engages in the provision of Sample to Insight solutions that enable customers to gain valuable molecular insights from samples containing the building blocks of life. The company sample technologies isolate and process DNA, RNA, and proteins from blood, tissue, and other materials. The firm assay technologies make these biomolecules visible and ready for analysis. Its bioinformatics software and knowledge bases interpret data to report relevant, actionable insights. The company was founded by Detlev H. Riesner and Metin Colpan on April 29, 1996, and is headquartered in Venlo, the Netherlands.