Today is Wednesday, February 27, 2019 and here’s your daily small cap valuation.
Portola Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: PTLA) is a small-cap stock that could have a lot of potential. But it’s hard to value smaller companies like this. Conventional valuation metrics like price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio, profit margin, and return on equity (ROE) may not be available for them.
To get a sense of Portola Pharmaceuticals’ true valuation, let’s compare it to its industry peers — and to itself one year ago. We’ll look at four small cap valuation metrics…
Price-to-Book Value (P/B) Ratio
Portola Pharmaceuticals’ price-to-book value (P/B) ratio of 12.63 is 117.35% higher than its industry average of 5.811. That’s not good. A high P/B ratio may indicate that there’s something wrong with the company’s balance sheet — or that the stock is trading for an unusually high price based on its balance sheet.
Free Cash Flow Yield (FCF/Enterprise Value)
Portola Pharmaceuticals’ free cash flow yield (FCF/EV) is undefined. That’s not good. FCF/EV is a fraction, and an undefined value generally means that the firm has a zero or a negative number as its enterprise value. It could also indicate that the company has failed to report the data used to calculate its enterprise value. Either way, we have to fault it for this.
Earnings per Share (EPS) Growth
Portola Pharmaceuticals has not grown its earnings per share (EPS) in the last year. That’s not good. Negative earnings aren’t the end of the world — they’re fairly common among smaller, newer companies — but if earnings are falling over time, that’s definitely a bad sign.
Gross Margin Growth
Portola Pharmaceuticals has not grown its gross margin in the last year. That’s not good. It indicates that the company is making less money from its operations over time.
The Takeaway
Portola Pharmaceuticals scored favorably on 0 of our 4 valuation metrics. With this in mind, we believe the stock is very overvalued.
We’ve been keeping an eye on a set of small-cap stocks that are a better value than Portola Pharmaceuticals. These stocks have the potential for bigger gains — and they’re far less risky than the speculative small caps many investors gamble on. Enter your email below to learn more.
P.S. Got another small-cap stock you want us to test with our valuation metrics? Leave the ticker symbol in the comments below.
