Head-To-Head Contrast: Rani Therapeutics (NASDAQ:RANI) versus Akebia Therapeutics (NASDAQ:AKBA)

Rani Therapeutics (NASDAQ:RANI) and Akebia Therapeutics (NASDAQ:AKBA) are both small-cap medical companies, but which is the better business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their institutional ownership, profitability, analyst recommendations, valuation, earnings, risk and dividends.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings and price targets for Rani Therapeutics and Akebia Therapeutics, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Rani Therapeutics	0	0	6	1	3.14
Akebia Therapeutics	0	0	1	0	3.00

Rani Therapeutics currently has a consensus price target of $11.71, indicating a potential upside of 724.95%. Akebia Therapeutics has a consensus price target of $7.50, indicating a potential upside of 305.41%. Given Rani Therapeutics’ stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Rani Therapeutics is more favorable than Akebia Therapeutics.

Risk and Volatility

Rani Therapeutics has a beta of 0.05, suggesting that its stock price is 95% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Akebia Therapeutics has a beta of 0.7, suggesting that its stock price is 30% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Rani Therapeutics and Akebia Therapeutics’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Rani Therapeutics	N/A	-219.64%	-56.71%
Akebia Therapeutics	-27.07%	N/A	-20.57%

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Rani Therapeutics and Akebia Therapeutics”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Rani Therapeutics	$2.72 million	29.91	-$33.97 million	($1.06)	-1.34
Akebia Therapeutics	$169.88 million	2.38	-$51.92 million	($0.23)	-8.04

Rani Therapeutics has higher earnings, but lower revenue than Akebia Therapeutics. Akebia Therapeutics is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Rani Therapeutics, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

30.2% of Rani Therapeutics shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 33.9% of Akebia Therapeutics shares are owned by institutional investors. 53.3% of Rani Therapeutics shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 4.1% of Akebia Therapeutics shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Summary

Rani Therapeutics beats Akebia Therapeutics on 9 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Rani Therapeutics

Rani Therapeutics Holdings, Inc. operates as a clinical stage biotherapeutics company that develops orally administered biologics for patients, physicians, and healthcare systems in the United States. The company develops the RaniPill capsule, a drug-agnostic oral delivery platform to deliver a variety of drug substances, including oligonucleotides, peptides, proteins, and antibodies. Its product pipeline includes RT-102, a parathyroid hormone that is in Phase I clinical trial for the treatment of osteoporosis; RT-105, an anti-TNF-alpha antibody that is in preclinical studies to treat psoriatic arthritis; RT-110, a parathyroid hormone for the treatment of hypoparathyroidism; and RT-111, an ustekinumab biosimilar for the treatment of various inflammatory conditions. Rani Therapeutics Holdings, Inc. was founded in 2012 and is headquartered in San Jose, California.

About Akebia Therapeutics

Akebia Therapeutics, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company, focuses on the development and commercialization of therapeutics for patients with kidney diseases. The company’s lead product investigational product candidate is Vafseo (vadadustat), an oral hypoxia-inducible factor prolyl hydroxylase, which is in Phase III development for the treatment of anemia due to chronic kidney disease (CKD) in dialysis-dependent and non-dialysis dependent patients. It offers Auryxia, a ferric citrate that is used to control the serum phosphorus levels in adult patients with DD-CKD on dialysis; and the treatment of iron deficiency anemia in adult patients with CKD not on dialysis. The company’s product pipeline includes AKB-9090, a drug targeting critical-care indications; and AKB-10108, a drug targeting conditions related to premature birth. It has collaboration agreements with Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma Corporation for the development and commercialization of vadadustat in Japan and other Asian countries, as well as research and license agreement with Janssen Pharmaceutica NV for the development and commercialization of hypoxia-inducible factor prolyl hydroxylase targeted compounds worldwide. Akebia Therapeutics, Inc. was incorporated in 2007 and is headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts.