Critical Contrast: Alector (NASDAQ:ALEC) and BioNTech (NASDAQ:BNTX)

BioNTech (NASDAQ:BNTX) and Alector (NASDAQ:ALEC) are both medical companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their risk, valuation, institutional ownership, earnings, dividends, profitability and analyst recommendations.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings for BioNTech and Alector, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
BioNTech	0	4	12	1	2.82
Alector	2	2	3	0	2.14

BioNTech presently has a consensus target price of $140.76, indicating a potential upside of 23.53%. Alector has a consensus target price of $3.75, indicating a potential upside of 110.67%. Given Alector’s higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Alector is more favorable than BioNTech.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

15.5% of BioNTech shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 85.8% of Alector shares are held by institutional investors. 19.2% of BioNTech shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 9.1% of Alector shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

This table compares BioNTech and Alector’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
BioNTech	-15.16%	-2.35%	-2.05%
Alector	-257.54%	-108.77%	-27.03%

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares BioNTech and Alector”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
BioNTech	$3.04 billion	8.99	$1.01 billion	($2.10)	-54.26
Alector	$61.51 million	2.83	-$130.39 million	($1.70)	-1.05

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

Volatility and Risk

BioNTech has a beta of 0.22, meaning that its stock price is 78% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Alector has a beta of 0.51, meaning that its stock price is 49% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

BioNTech beats Alector on 10 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About BioNTech

BioNTech SE, a biotechnology company, develops and commercializes immunotherapies for cancer and other infectious diseases. The company is developing FixVac product candidates, including BNT111, which is in Phase II clinical trial for advance melanoma; BNT112 that is in Phase I/IIa clinical trial for prostate cancer; BNT113, which is in Phase II clinical trial to treat HPV 16+ head and neck cancers; BNT114 to treat triple negative breast cancer; BNT115, which is in Phase I clinical trial in ovarian cancer; and BNT116, which is in Phase I clinical trial for non-small cell lung cancer. It develops BNT122, which is in Phase II clinical trial for first-line melanoma and in Phase I clinical trial to treat multiple solid tumors; BNT131 that is in Phase I clinical trial for multiple solid tumors; BNT141 and BNT142 that are in Phase I clinical trial to treat multiple solid tumors; BNT151, BNT152, and BNT153 to treat solid tumors; BNT211 to treat multiple solid tumors, and BNT221 for pancreatic and other cancers; BNT311 which are in Phase II clinical trial to treat metastatic non-small cell lung cancer and Phase I/II clinical trial to treat multiple solid tumors; and BNT312, which is in Phase 2 clinical trial to treat multiple solid tumors, as well as ONC-392, which is in Phase III clinical trial to treat ovarian cancer and Phase I/II clinical trial to treat multiple solid tumors. It develops BNT321, an IgG1 monoclonal antibody in Phase I clinical trial for pancreatic cancer; BNT411, a small molecule immunomodulator product candidate in Phase I clinical trial for solid tumors; BNT322, which is in Phase I/Ib clinical trial for multiple solid tumors; and prophylactic vaccine for shingles, malaria, tuberculosis, HSV-2, and other infectious diseases. It has collaborations with Genentech, Inc.; Sanofi S.A.; Genmab A/S; Pfizer Inc.; Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical (Group) Co., Ltd; and Ryvu Therapeutics S.A. BioNTech SE was incorporated in 2008 and is based in Mainz, Germany.

About Alector

Alector, Inc., a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company, develops therapies for the treatment of neurodegeneration diseases. Its products include AL001, an immune activity in the brain with genetic links to multiple neurodegenerative disorders, which is in Phase III clinical trial for the treatment of frontotemporal dementia, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis diseases; and AL101 that is in Phase I clinical trial for the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases. The company also offers AL002, a product candidate that is in Phase II clinical trial for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease. Alector, Inc. has a collaboration agreement with Adimab, LLC for the research and development of antibodies; and a strategic collaboration agreement with GlaxoSmithKline plc for the development and commercialization of monoclonal antibodies, such as AL001 and AL101 to treat neurodegenerative diseases. The company was founded in 2013 and is headquartered in South San Francisco, California.