Roivant Sciences (ROIV) Breaks Trend as It Hits $10.44

Roivant Sciences was one of the market's biggest losers today, losing 3.4% of its value and underperforming both the S&P500 and Dow Industrial composite indices by 0.0%. The mid-cap Health Care company ended the day at $10.44, but is still well above its 52 week low of $2.87 and is 33.24% below its average target price of $15.63. Over the last 12 months, Roivant Sciences is up 228.0%, and has outperformed the S&P 500 by 210.0%. The stock has an average analyst rating of buy.

Roivant Sciences does not publish its forward or trailing price to earnings (P/E) ratio because the stock has negative forward and trailing earnings per share (EPS) values at $-1.18 and $-1.42 respectively. Since P/E ratios are share price divided by earnings per share, Roivant Sciences has a negative P/E ratio, which is not meaningful besides the fact that it indicates the company is not currently profitable.

When it comes to new businesses -- especially those operating within the technology sector -- investors are often willing to overlook prolonged periods of negative earnings and inflated valuations. But not so in the Health Care sector, which has an average P/E ratio of 24.45. If Roivant Sciences cannot improve its earnings picture soon, it's unlikely that investors will stay onboard -- unless there are other factors in favor of the business's outlook.

Another metric for valuing a stock is its Price to Book (P/B) Ratio, which consists in its share price divided by its book value per share. The book value refers to the present value of the company if it sold all its tangible assets and paid off all debts today. Roivant Sciences's P/B ratio of 8.79 indicates that the market may be overvaluing the company when compared to the average P/B ratio of the Health Care sector, which is 4.16.

Roivant Sciences is likely to attract many investors on the basis of its strong gross margins, which indicate that it either has an exceptional competitive advantage, or that its particular product or services involve very few direct costs:

Date Reported Revenue ($ k) Cost of Revenue ($ k) Gross Margins (%) YoY Growth (%)
2023-02-13 17,052 -3,586 79 -13.19
2022-02-14 23,795 -2,057 91
  • Average gross margins: 85.0 %
  • Average gross margins growth rate: -0.0 %
  • Coefficient of variability (lower numbers indicate more stability): 10.0 %

Don't let the above fool you. Such high gross margins need to be considered alongside the company's operating margins, which take into account overhead:

Date Reported Total Revenue ($ k) Operating Expenses ($ k) Operating Margins (%) YoY Growth (%)
2023-02-13 17,052 -125,533 -657 67.07
2022-02-14 23,795 -496,504 -1995
  • Average operating margins: -1326.0 %
  • Average operating margins growth rate: 42.6 %
  • Coefficient of variability (lower numbers indicate more stability): 71.4 %

We can see that in fact, Roivant Sciences's significant overhead eliminates its profits from sales entirely. The company is not profitable.

To get a better idea of Roivant Sciences's finances, we will now look at its cash flows. Often touted as a general yardstick for a company's financial health, cash flows represent the sum of inflows and outflows of cash from all sources, including capital expenditures:

Date Reported Cash Flow from Operations ($ k) Capital expenditures ($ k) Free Cash Flow ($ k) YoY Growth (%)
2023-02-13 -677,729 -17,436 -660,293 -20.86
2022-02-14 -552,138 -5,806 -546,332
  • Average free cash flow: $-660293000
  • Average free cash flow growth rate: -0.0 %
  • Coefficient of variability (lower numbers indicating more stability): 772603987.4%

Free cash flow represents the money that Roivant Sciences can use to either reinvest in the business or to reward its investors in the form of a dividend. Since the company's most recent cash flows are negative, it comes as no surprise that investors do not get a dividend.

In conclusion, Roivant Sciences may be unattractive to investors with a low risk tolerance or a long term investment horizon. Stocks such as these may offer strong returns in the short term, but for now the long term potential of the company is not substantiated -- by the numbers, at least.

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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