Amgen (AMGN) Competitors

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

Do analysts recommend AMGN or VRTX?

Amgen currently has a consensus target price of $319.67, indicating a potential upside of 21.37%. Vertex Pharmaceuticals has a consensus target price of $499.77, indicating a potential upside of 25.80%. Given Vertex Pharmaceuticals' stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Vertex Pharmaceuticals is more favorable than Amgen.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Amgen	2 Sell rating(s)	12 Hold rating(s)	10 Buy rating(s)	1 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.40
Vertex Pharmaceuticals	3 Sell rating(s)	10 Hold rating(s)	17 Buy rating(s)	1 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.52

Which has preferable valuation and earnings, 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	$32.53B	4.35	$6.72B	$7.81	33.72
Vertex Pharmaceuticals	$10.63B	9.63	$3.62B	-$1.99	-199.63

Does the MarketBeat Community prefer AMGN or VRTX?

Vertex Pharmaceuticals received 43 more outperform votes than Amgen when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 75.34% of users gave Vertex Pharmaceuticals an outperform vote while only 72.11% of users gave Amgen an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Amgen	Outperform Votes 1546 72.11%	Underperform Votes 598 27.89%
Vertex Pharmaceuticals	Outperform Votes 1589 75.34%	Underperform Votes 520 24.66%

Do institutionals & insiders believe in AMGN or VRTX?

76.5% of Amgen shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 91.0% of Vertex Pharmaceuticals shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.7% of Amgen shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 0.2% of Vertex Pharmaceuticals shares are owned by 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.

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 volatility and risk, AMGN or VRTX?

Amgen has a beta of 0.55, meaning that its share price is 45% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Vertex Pharmaceuticals has a beta of 0.36, meaning that its share price is 64% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Does the media prefer AMGN or VRTX?

In the previous week, Vertex Pharmaceuticals had 31 more articles in the media than Amgen. MarketBeat recorded 44 mentions for Vertex Pharmaceuticals and 13 mentions for Amgen. Amgen's average media sentiment score of 0.56 beat Vertex Pharmaceuticals' score of 0.33 indicating that Amgen is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Amgen	4 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	3 Neutral mention(s)	4 Negative mention(s)	1 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Vertex Pharmaceuticals	11 Very Positive mention(s)	8 Positive mention(s)	12 Neutral mention(s)	4 Negative mention(s)	2 Very Negative mention(s)	Neutral

Summary

Amgen beats Vertex Pharmaceuticals on 10 of the 18 factors compared between the two stocks.