Critical Review: AVROBIO (NASDAQ:AVRO) and Krystal Biotech (NASDAQ:KRYS)

AVROBIO (NASDAQ:AVRO) and Krystal Biotech (NASDAQ:KRYS) are both medical companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, dividends, earnings, valuation, institutional ownership, profitability and analyst recommendations.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations and price targets for AVROBIO and Krystal Biotech, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
AVROBIO	0	2	0	0	2.00
Krystal Biotech	0	0	9	0	3.00

AVROBIO presently has a consensus price target of $24.00, indicating a potential upside of 1,614.29%. Krystal Biotech has a consensus price target of $177.63, indicating a potential downside of 0.36%. Given AVROBIO’s higher probable upside, equities analysts plainly believe AVROBIO is more favorable than Krystal Biotech.

Profitability

This table compares AVROBIO and Krystal Biotech’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
AVROBIO	N/A	-50.52%	-47.13%
Krystal Biotech	N/A	-5.74%	-5.45%

Risk & Volatility

AVROBIO has a beta of 1.23, suggesting that its stock price is 23% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Krystal Biotech has a beta of 0.9, suggesting that its stock price is 10% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares AVROBIO and Krystal Biotech’s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
AVROBIO	N/A	N/A	$12.16 million	$0.69	2.03
Krystal Biotech	$50.70 million	100.42	$10.93 million	$1.87	95.33

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

Insider & Institutional Ownership

62.6% of AVROBIO shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 86.3% of Krystal Biotech shares are owned by institutional investors. 9.2% of AVROBIO shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 14.1% of Krystal Biotech shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Summary

Krystal Biotech beats AVROBIO on 9 of the 12 factors compared between the two stocks.

About AVROBIO

AVROBIO, Inc., a clinical-stage gene therapy company, develops hematopoietic stem cell gene therapies to treat rare diseases in the United States. Its gene therapies employ hematopoietic stem cells that are harvested from the patient and then modified with a lentiviral vector to insert the equivalent of a functional copy of the gene that is mutated in the target disease. The company's pipeline includes AVR-RD-02, which is in phase 1/2 clinical trial for the treatment of Gaucher disease type 1 and 3; AVR-RD-01, which is in phase 2 clinical trials for the treatment of Fabry disease; and AVR-RD-03 that is in preclinical stage for the treatment of Pompe disease. The company was incorporated in 2015 and is headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

About Krystal Biotech

Krystal Biotech, Inc., a commercial-stage biotechnology company, discovers, develops, and commercializes genetic medicines for patients with rare diseases in the United States. It commercializes VYJUVEK (beremagene geperpavec-svdt, or B-VEC) for the treatment of dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa (DEB). The company also develops KB105, which is in Phase 1/2 clinical trials for treating patients with deficient autosomal recessive congenital ichthyosis; KB104 for treating netherton syndrome; KB407 that is in Phase 1 clinical trials for treating cystic fibrosis; KB707 that is in Phase 1 clinical trials for the treatment of anti-PD-1 relapsed/refractory; KB408, which is in Phase 1 clinical trials for treating Alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency; and KB301 that is in Phase 2 clinical trials for treating aesthetic skin conditions, as well as in open label study with ophthalmic B-VEC for treating for ocular complications of deb. Krystal Biotech, Inc. was founded in 2016 and is headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.