Critical Analysis: MBX Biosciences (MBX) versus Its Competitors

MBX Biosciences (NYSE:MBX) is one of 450 publicly-traded companies in the “Pharmaceutical preparations” industry, but how does it contrast to its competitors? We will compare MBX Biosciences to similar businesses based on the strength of its analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, earnings, profitability, valuation, risk and dividends.

Profitability

This table compares MBX Biosciences and its competitors’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
MBX Biosciences	N/A	N/A	N/A
MBX Biosciences Competitors	-2,615.58%	-412.87%	-44.60%

Institutional & Insider Ownership

39.0% of shares of all “Pharmaceutical preparations” companies are owned by institutional investors. 52.2% of MBX Biosciences shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 14.1% of shares of all “Pharmaceutical preparations” companies are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current recommendations and price targets for MBX Biosciences and its competitors, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
MBX Biosciences	0	0	8	0	3.00
MBX Biosciences Competitors	4779	9993	16021	364	2.38

MBX Biosciences presently has a consensus target price of $37.75, indicating a potential upside of 156.45%. As a group, “Pharmaceutical preparations” companies have a potential upside of 217.59%. Given MBX Biosciences’ competitors higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe MBX Biosciences has less favorable growth aspects than its competitors.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares MBX Biosciences and its competitors gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
MBX Biosciences	N/A	N/A	-3.24
MBX Biosciences Competitors	$442.24 million	-$69.06 million	-8.79

MBX Biosciences’ competitors have higher revenue, but lower earnings than MBX Biosciences. MBX Biosciences is trading at a higher price-to-earnings ratio than its competitors, indicating that it is currently more expensive than other companies in its industry.

Summary

MBX Biosciences beats its competitors on 7 of the 11 factors compared.

MBX Biosciences Company Profile

MBX Biosciences, Inc., a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, focuses on the discovery and development of precision peptide therapies for the treatment of endocrine and metabolic disorders. Its lead product candidate is MBX 2109, a parathyroid hormone peptide prodrug, which is in Phase 2 clinical trial designed as a potential long-acting hormone replacement therapy for the treatment of chronic hypoparathyroidism. The company is also developing MBX 1416, a long-acting glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor antagonist that is in Phase 1 clinical trial designed as a potential therapy for post-bariatric hypoglycemia, a chronic complication of bariatric surgery. In addition, it is developing MBX 4291, a lead obesity product candidate, which is in investigational new drug-enabling studies designed as a long-acting and highly potent GLP-1 and glucose-dependent insulinotropic polypeptide receptor co-agonist prodrug for treating obesity and co-morbidities. The company was founded in 2018 and is based in Carmel, Indiana.