Repligen (NASDAQ:RGEN) versus Ablynx (OTCMKTS:ABLYF) Head-To-Head Survey

Repligen (NASDAQ:RGEN) and Ablynx (OTCMKTS:ABLYF) are both mid-cap medical companies, but which is the superior stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, valuation, analyst recommendations, earnings, profitability, risk and dividends.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent ratings and target prices for Repligen and Ablynx, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Repligen	0	2	9	0	2.82
Ablynx	0	0	0	0	N/A

Repligen presently has a consensus price target of $193.00, indicating a potential upside of 52.97%. Given Repligen’s higher possible upside, equities research analysts plainly believe Repligen is more favorable than Ablynx.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Repligen and Ablynx’s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Repligen	$638.76 million	11.04	$41.58 million	$0.25	504.70
Ablynx	$62.73 million	60.74	-$122.67 million	N/A	N/A

Repligen has higher revenue and earnings than Ablynx.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

97.6% of Repligen shares are held by institutional investors. 1.2% of Repligen 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.

Profitability

This table compares Repligen and Ablynx’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Repligen	2.44%	3.95%	2.90%
Ablynx	N/A	N/A	N/A

Volatility & Risk

Repligen has a beta of 0.95, meaning that its stock price is 5% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Ablynx has a beta of 1.99, meaning that its stock price is 99% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Repligen beats Ablynx on 9 of the 11 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Repligen

Repligen Corporation develops and commercializes bioprocessing technologies and systems for use in biological drug manufacturing process in North America, Europe, the Asia Pacific, and internationally. It offers Protein A ligands that are the binding components of Protein A affinity chromatography resins; and cell culture growth factor products. The company's chromatography products include OPUS pre-packed chromatography columns, which are used in the purification of biologics; and OPUS smaller-scale columns that are used in the high throughput process development screening, viral clearance validation studies, and scale down validation of chromatography processes. It also offers ELISA test kits; and chromatography resins under the CaptivA brand. In addition, the company provides filtration products, such as XCell Alternating Tangential Flow systems that are filtration devices used in upstream perfusion and cell culture processing; TangenX flat sheet cassettes, which are used in downstream biologic drug concentration, buffer exchange, and formulation processes; KrosFlo tangential flow filtration and tangential flow depth filtration systems; Spectra/Por laboratory and process dialysis products, and ProConnex TFDF flow paths. Further, it provides process analytics products, such as slope spectroscopy systems under the SoloVPE, FlowVPE, and FlowVPX brands. The company sells its products to life sciences, biopharmaceutical, and diagnostics companies; laboratory researchers; and contract manufacturing organizations. Repligen Corporation has collaboration agreements with Navigo Proteins GmbH to develop multiple affinity ligands. The company was incorporated in 1981 and is headquartered in Waltham, Massachusetts.

About Ablynx

Ablynx NV, a late-stage clinical biopharmaceutical company, develops treatments for a range of therapeutic indications. The company develops Nanobodies that are proprietary therapeutic proteins based on single-domain antibody fragments for the treatment of inflammation, hematology, immuno-oncology, oncology, and respiratory diseases. Its clinical programs include caplacizumab, an anti-von Willebrand Factor Nanobody that has completed Phase III clinical trial to treat acquired thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura; ALX-0171, which is in Phase IIb clinical trial for the treatment of respiratory syncytial virus infection; and Vobarilizumab, an anti-IL-6R Nanobody that has completed Phase IIb clinical trial for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis, as well as in Phase II clinical trial to treat systemic lupus erythematosus. The company also develops ALX-0761, which is in Phase Ib clinical trial for the treatment of psoriasis, as well as various auto-immune disorders; Anti-VEGF/Ang2 Nanobody that is in Phase I clinical trial for patients with solid tumors; Anti-CX3CR1 Nanobody, which is in Phase I clinical trial for treating chronic kidney diseases; ozoralizumab, which has completed Phase I/IIa clinical trial for the treatment of auto-immune disorders with focus on rheumatoid arthritis; and ALX-0141, a trivalent Nanobody for the treatment of bone-loss related disorders comprising osteoporosis and bone metastasis, as well as completed a Phase I study in post-menopausal women. Ablynx NV has collaboration and alliance agreements with Merck & Co., Inc., AbbVie, Inc., Boehringer Ingelheim International GmbH, Merck KGaA, Eddingpharm, Novo Nordisk A/S, Novartis Pharma AG, Taisho Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., and Sanofi S.A. The company was formerly known as MatchX and changed its name to Ablynx NV in June 2002. Ablynx NV was founded in 2001 and is headquartered in Ghent, Belgium.