Reviewing Tvardi Therapeutics (NASDAQ:TVRD) & Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE:LLY)

Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE:LLY) and Tvardi Therapeutics (NASDAQ:TVRD) are both healthcare companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their dividends, earnings, profitability, institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, valuation and risk.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current recommendations and price targets for Eli Lilly and Company and Tvardi Therapeutics, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Eli Lilly and Company	1	4	24	1	2.83
Tvardi Therapeutics	1	1	6	1	2.78

Eli Lilly and Company presently has a consensus target price of $1,295.39, indicating a potential upside of 16.12%. Tvardi Therapeutics has a consensus target price of $18.00, indicating a potential upside of 862.57%. Given Tvardi Therapeutics’ higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Tvardi Therapeutics is more favorable than Eli Lilly and Company.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Eli Lilly and Company and Tvardi Therapeutics”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Eli Lilly and Company	$65.18 billion	16.11	$20.64 billion	$29.80	37.43
Tvardi Therapeutics	$7.14 million	3.49	-$18.21 million	($2.79)	-0.67

Eli Lilly and Company has higher revenue and earnings than Tvardi Therapeutics. Tvardi Therapeutics is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Eli Lilly and Company, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

82.5% of Eli Lilly and Company shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 44.7% of Tvardi Therapeutics shares are held by institutional investors. 0.1% of Eli Lilly and Company shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 7.4% of Tvardi Therapeutics shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

This table compares Eli Lilly and Company and Tvardi Therapeutics’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Eli Lilly and Company	33.53%	97.83%	23.23%
Tvardi Therapeutics	N/A	-145.40%	-91.11%

Volatility & Risk

Eli Lilly and Company has a beta of 0.5, indicating that its stock price is 50% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Tvardi Therapeutics has a beta of 0.32, indicating that its stock price is 68% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Eli Lilly and Company beats Tvardi Therapeutics on 12 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Eli Lilly and Company

Eli Lilly and Company discovers, develops, and markets human pharmaceuticals worldwide. The company offers Basaglar, Humalog, Humalog Mix 75/25, Humalog U-100, Humalog U-200, Humalog Mix 50/50, insulin lispro, insulin lispro protamine, insulin lispro mix 75/25, Humulin, Humulin 70/30, Humulin N, Humulin R, and Humulin U-500 for diabetes; Jardiance, Mounjaro, and Trulicity for type 2 diabetes; and Zepbound for obesity. It also provides oncology products, including Alimta, Cyramza, Erbitux, Jaypirca, Retevmo, Tyvyt, and Verzenio. In addition, the company offers Olumiant for rheumatoid arthritis, atopic dermatitis, severe alopecia areata, and COVID-19; Taltz for plaque psoriasis, psoriatic arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis, and non-radiographic axial spondylarthritis; Omvoh for ulcerative colitis; Cymbalta for depressive disorder, diabetic peripheral neuropathic pain, generalized anxiety disorder, fibromyalgia, and chronic musculoskeletal pain; Ebglyss for severe atopic dermatitis; and Emgality for migraine prevention and episodic cluster headache. Further, it provides Cialis for erectile dysfunction and benign prostatic hyperplasia; and Forteo for osteoporosis. It has collaborations with Incyte Corporation; Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals, Inc.; F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd and Genentech, Inc.; Biologics, Inc., AbCellera Biologics Inc.; and Chugai Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. The company was founded in 1876 and is headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana.

About Tvardi Therapeutics

Cara Therapeutics, Inc., an early commercial-stage biopharmaceutical company, focuses on developing and commercializing chemical entities with a primary focus on pruritus and pain by selectively targeting kappa opioid receptors in the United States. The company is developing product candidates that target the body’s peripheral nervous system and immune cells. The company’s lead product is KORSUVA (difelikefalin) injection for the treatment of moderate-to-severe pruritus associated with chronic kidney disease (CKD) in adults undergoing hemodialysis. Its product candidate includes Oral KORSUVA (difelikefalin), which has completed Phase II clinical trial to treat pruritus atopic dermatitis and pruritus non-dialysis-dependent chronic kidney disease (NDD-CKD) associated pruritus; and in Phase II clinical trial to treat pruritus chronic liver disease (CLD) primary biliary cholangitis (PBC) and notalgia paresthetica. The company has license agreements with Maruishi Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd to develop, manufacture, and commercialize drug products containing difelikefalin for acute pain and uremic pruritus in Japan; and Chong Kun Dang Pharmaceutical Corporation to develop, manufacture, and commercialize drug products containing difelikefalin in South Korea. Cara Therapeutics, Inc. was incorporated in 2004 and is based in Stamford, Connecticut.