Amgen (AMGN) Competitors

Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) and Vertex Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:VRTX) are both large-cap medical companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their earnings, profitability, community ranking, media sentiment, valuation, institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, risk and dividends.

Does the MarketBeat Community favor AMGN or VRTX?

Vertex Pharmaceuticals received 42 more outperform votes than Amgen when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 75.43% of users gave Vertex Pharmaceuticals an outperform vote while only 72.26% of users gave Amgen an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Amgen	Outperform Votes 1542 72.26%	Underperform Votes 592 27.74%
Vertex Pharmaceuticals	Outperform Votes 1584 75.43%	Underperform Votes 516 24.57%

Do analysts rate AMGN or VRTX?

Amgen currently has a consensus target price of $333.57, indicating a potential upside of 15.88%. Vertex Pharmaceuticals has a consensus target price of $499.12, indicating a potential upside of 10.61%. Given Amgen's higher possible upside, equities analysts clearly believe Amgen is more favorable than Vertex Pharmaceuticals.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Amgen	1 Sell rating(s)	13 Hold rating(s)	11 Buy rating(s)	1 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.46
Vertex Pharmaceuticals	3 Sell rating(s)	9 Hold rating(s)	17 Buy rating(s)	1 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.53

Which has higher earnings and valuation, AMGN or VRTX?

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

Company	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Amgen	$28.19B	5.49	$6.72B	$7.81	36.86
Vertex Pharmaceuticals	$9.87B	11.77	$3.62B	-$1.99	-226.75

Is AMGN or VRTX more profitable?

Amgen has a net margin of 13.00% compared to Vertex Pharmaceuticals' net margin of -4.52%. Amgen's return on equity of 168.35% beat Vertex Pharmaceuticals' return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Amgen	13.00%	168.35%	11.18%
Vertex Pharmaceuticals	-4.52%	-1.91%	-1.43%

Which has more risk & volatility, AMGN or VRTX?

Amgen has a beta of 0.6, suggesting that its share price is 40% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Vertex Pharmaceuticals has a beta of 0.39, suggesting that its share price is 61% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Do insiders and institutionals have more ownership in AMGN or VRTX?

76.5% of Amgen shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 91.0% of Vertex Pharmaceuticals shares are held by institutional investors. 0.7% of Amgen shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 0.2% of Vertex Pharmaceuticals shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Does the media favor AMGN or VRTX?

In the previous week, Amgen had 15 more articles in the media than Vertex Pharmaceuticals. MarketBeat recorded 65 mentions for Amgen and 50 mentions for Vertex Pharmaceuticals. Vertex Pharmaceuticals' average media sentiment score of 1.24 beat Amgen's score of 0.91 indicating that Vertex Pharmaceuticals is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Amgen	40 Very Positive mention(s)	3 Positive mention(s)	17 Neutral mention(s)	1 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Vertex Pharmaceuticals	35 Very Positive mention(s)	2 Positive mention(s)	9 Neutral mention(s)	1 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Summary

Amgen beats Vertex Pharmaceuticals on 11 of the 18 factors compared between the two stocks.