As HALO Rises, Is it Becoming Overvalued?

Halozyme Therapeutics (HALO) stock climbed 1.1 % this morning. According to our metrics, the company seems overvalued at today's prices. In the below analysis, we will put Halozyme Therapeutics's valuation in the context of its strong growth indicators and mixed market sentiment, which are also strong drivers for share price.

Halozyme Therapeutics, Inc., a biopharma technology platform company, researches, develops, and commercializes proprietary enzymes and devices in the United States, Switzerland, Ireland, Belgium, Japan, and internationally. The mid-cap Health Care company is based in San Diego, United States and has 393 full time employees.

HALO's P/E Ratio Is Comparable to its Sector Average

Compared to the Health Care sector's average of 24.45, Halozyme Therapeutics has a trailing twelve month price to earnings (P/E) ratio of 25.6 and an expected P/E ratio of 9.8. P/E ratios are calculated by dividing the company's share price by either its trailing 12 month ($1.41) or forward earnings per share ($3.69).

Earnings is another term for the net profits left over after subtracting cost of goods sold, taxes, and operating costs from the company's recorded sales revenue. One way of looking at the P/E ratio is that it represents how much investors are willing to pay for every dollar's worth of the company's earnings. Since Halozyme Therapeutics's P/E ratio is near its sector average of 24.45, we can deduce that the market is fairly valuing the company's earnings.

Halozyme Therapeutics Is Fairly Valued in Terms of Expected Growth

Another factor pointing to Halozyme Therapeutics's value is its PEG ratio of 0.51. This is the stock's price to earnings ratio divided by its estimated earnings growth rate. If the resulting ratio is near or lower than 1 -- but higher than 0 -- its indicates that the company is faitly valued in terms of expected growth.

HALO Has an Alarming P/B Ratio

The price to book (P/B) ratio of a company is a comparison of the company's market capitalization versus its net asset, or book value. A ratio lower than 1 tells you that the equity market is undervaluing the book value of the company's assets, and ratios higher than 1 tell you that the equity markets are overvaluing the company in terms of its assets.

Of course, a company is worth much more than its assets alone, so the focus on P/B ratio is mainly to enable investors to single out undervalued securities that offer a margin of safety. Since Halozyme Therapeutics's P/B ratio of 28.7 is higher than its sector average of 4.16, such a margin of safety does not exist for the stock.

HALO Is Generating Cash

Halozyme Therapeutics has decent free cash flows. This represents the actual cash that the company is generating from its sales revenues, minus its re-investments in the business (capital expenditures). The company's operating cash flows have an average growth rate of 39.7%, compared to 4.5% for capital expenditures. From the table below we can also see that the free cash flows has an average growth rate of 38.0% and a coefficient of variability of 142.0%:

Date Reported Cash Flow from Operations ($ k) Capital expenditures ($ k) FreeCashFlow ($ k) YoY Growth (%)
2022-12-31 240,110 -4,810 235,300 -21.04
2021-12-31 299,440 -1,457 297,983 462.76
2020-12-31 55,454 -2,504 52,950 159.19
2019-12-31 -85,423 -4,040 -89,463 n/a

Halozyme Therapeutics's Margins Are Strong

If you buy a stock for the long run, you want the underlying business model to be profitable. Gross margins tell you how much profit the company generates compared to the cost of revenue, which is the cost directly related to providing Halozyme Therapeutics's goods and services. Operating margins, on the other hand, tell you how much of these profits the company keeps after you take overhead into account.

Halozyme Therapeutics's Gross Margins

Date Reported Revenue ($ k) Cost of Revenue ($ k) Gross Margins (%) YoY Growth (%)
2022-12-31 660,116 139,304 78.9 -3.36
2021-12-31 443,310 81,413 81.64 -2.57
2020-12-31 267,594 43,367 83.79 9.16
2019-12-31 195,992 45,546 76.76 n/a

Halozyme Therapeutics's Operating Margins

Date Reported TotalRevenue ($ k) Operating Expenses ($ k) Operating Margins (%) YoY Growth (%)
2022-12-31 660,116 253,281 40.53 -34.88
2021-12-31 443,310 85,995 62.24 15.45
2020-12-31 267,594 79,972 53.91 256.26
2019-12-31 195,992 218,056 -34.5 n/a

Halozyme Therapeutics's cost of revenue is growing at a rate of 32.2% in contrast to 3.8% for operating expenses. Sales revenues, on the other hand, have experienced a 35.5% growth rate. As a result, the average gross margins growth is 0.7 and the average operating margins growth rate is 21.4, with coefficients of variability of 3.8% and 145.0% respectively.

Halozyme Therapeutics Benefits From Positive Market Signals

The market sentiment regarding Halozyme Therapeutics is overwhelmingly positive. The stock has an average rating of buy and target prices ranging from $68.0 to $26.0. HALO is trading -31.72% away from its target price of $52.78. 5.7% of the company's shares are tied to short positions, and 98.4% of the shares are held by institutional investors.

Date Reported Holder Percentage Shares Value
2022-12-31 Blackrock Inc. 13% 18,215,726 $656,494,781
2022-12-31 Vanguard Group, Inc. (The) 10% 13,303,847 $479,470,658
2022-12-31 Artisan Partners Limited Partnership 5% 7,140,953 $257,359,952
2022-12-31 Invesco Ltd. 4% 6,005,451 $216,436,459
2022-12-31 State Street Corporation 4% 5,714,013 $205,933,033
2022-12-31 Snyder Capital Management, LP 3% 3,983,814 $143,576,660
2022-12-31 William Blair Investment Management, LLC 3% 3,706,003 $133,564,351
2022-12-31 JP Morgan Chase & Company 2% 3,227,777 $116,329,086
2022-12-31 Macquarie Group Limited 2% 2,605,261 $93,893,608
2022-12-31 Geode Capital Management, LLC 2% 2,515,097 $90,644,098
The above analysis is intended for educational purposes only and was performed on the basis of publicly available data. It is not to be construed as a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Any buy, sell, or other recommendations mentioned in the article are direct quotations of consensus recommendations from the analysts covering the stock, and do not represent the opinions of Market Inference or its writers. Past performance, accounting data, and inferences about market position and corporate valuation are not reliable indicators of future price movements. Market Inference does not provide financial advice. Investors should conduct their own review and analysis of any company of interest before making an investment decision.

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