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What Are Key Financial Ratios for Pharma?
Pharmaceutical companies have been top performers in the healthcare sector in an era of aging populations, rising healthcare costs, and the ongoing development of new and extremely profitable medicines. Investors seeking to invest in the best pharmaceutical companies are faced with a wide array of publicly traded companies from which to choose. To make informed choices, investors need to consider the key financial ratios that are most helpful in the analysis and equity evaluation of pharma firms.
Key Takeaways:
- When evaluating stock from a specific sector, some key ratios are more informative than others.
- Pharmaceutical companies are characterized by high capital expenditures, such as the amount that must be spent on R&D to create new drugs.
- Key financial ratios for pharmaceutical companies are those related to R&D costs and the company’s ability to manage high levels of debt and profitability.
Understanding Key Financial Ratios and Pharmaceutical Stocks
Pharmaceutical companies are characterized by high capital expenditures on research and development (R&D) and a long period between initial research and finally getting a product to market. Once a pharma product reaches the marketplace, the company must determine how high a price the company can charge for a drug to earn a profitable return on its investment in the shortest amount of time. Key financial ratios for pharmaceutical companies are those related to R&D costs and the company’s ability to manage high levels of debt and profitability.
Return on Research Capital Ratio
Because R&D expenses are a major cost for pharmaceutical companies, one of the key financial metrics for analyzing pharma companies is a ratio that indicates the financial return a company realizes from its R&D expenditures.
The return on research capital ratio (RORC) is a fundamental measure that reveals the gross profit that a company realizes from each dollar of R&D expenditures. The ratio is calculated by dividing the current year’s gross profit by the previous year’s total R&D expenditures.
RORC = Current Year’s Gross Profit / Previous Year’s R&D Expenditures
Examining the RORC gives investors an idea of how well the company is managing to translate the previous year’s R&D expenses into current year revenues.
Profitability Ratios
Once a pharmaceutical company successfully brings a product to market, a key element is how the company can manufacture and sell the product. Therefore, it is also helpful for investors to look at basic profitability ratios, such as operating margin and net margin.
Operating Margin = Operating Earnings / Revenue
Operating margin, the profit per dollar of sales after paying variable production costs but before interest or taxes, indicates how well the company manages costs. Net margin is the bottom-line indicator of profit realized after deducting all of a company’s expenses, including taxes and interest.
Liquidity and Debt Coverage Ratios
Because pharmaceutical companies must make large capital expenditures on R&D, they must be able to maintain adequate levels of liquidity and effectively manage their characteristically high levels of debt.
The quick ratio is a financial metric used to measure short-term liquidity. It is calculated as the sum of current assets minus inventories, divided by current liabilities. The quick ratio is a good indicator of a company’s ability to effectively cover its day-to-day operating expenses.
Quick Ratio = (Current Assets – Inventories) / Current Liabilities
The debt ratio measures a company’s leverage and indicates the proportional amount of its assets that are financed through debt. The ratio is calculated as total debt divided by total assets.
Debt Ratio = Total Debt / Total Assets
Successfully managing debt obligations is a major factor in the long-term viability and profitability of any pharmaceutical company.
Return on Equity
The return-on-equity ratio (ROE) is considered a key ratio in equity evaluation because it addresses a question of prime importance to investors: what kind of return the company is generating in relation to its equity. A company’s ROE is a valuable indicator of how effectively the organization is utilizing its equity capital and how profitable the company is for equity investors.
ROE is calculated by dividing a company’s net income by total shareholders’ equity. Although a higher ROE figure is generally a better ROE figure, investors should exercise caution when a very high ROE results from extremely high financial leverage. This is one reason why it is also important to consider a pharma company’s debt and liquidity situation.
ROE = Net Income / Shareholders’ Equity
The importance of ROE in analyzing pharmaceutical companies stems from the basic fact that pharmaceutical companies must expend massive amounts of capital to bring their products to market. Therefore, how efficiently they employ the capital that equity investors provide is indeed a key indicator of the effectiveness of the company’s management and of the company’s ultimate profitability.
What Is the Average ROE in the Pharmaceutical Industry?
The average ROE in the pharmaceutical industry in the United States is approximately 10.49%. Companies in this industry typically have high ROEs due to their high profit margins and income, although they often use debt to boost their income.
What Is the Price-to-Research Ratio (PRR)?
The price-to-research ratio compares a company’s R&D spending to its market capitalization. It’s calculated by dividing a company’s market value by its last 12 months of R&D expenditures. A lower PRR may indicate that a company is investing more in R&D, which could mean a focus on generating future profits.
What Is the Relationship Between ROE and Debit-to-Equity Ratio?
Generally speaking, companies in the pharmaceutical industry have relatively high ROE, largely thanks to their high profits and incomes. However, income can also be leveraged with debt, which can lead to high debt-to-equity ratios. For example, as of February 2025, drug manufacturer Eli Lily had an impressive ROE of 74%. That said, its debt-to-equity ratio was 2.18, indicating that it fueled its returns with a significant amount of debt.
The Bottom Line
The pharmaceutical industry is characterized by high profit margins, income, and capital expenditures. To correctly evaluate pharmaceutical companies’ performance, it’s important to look at key metrics, such as return on research capital, profitability ratios, return on equity, and liquidity and debt coverage ratios. These metrics can help you discern whether these companies are investing in R&D, using debt to fuel income, and how good they are at managing costs.
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