Ligand Pharmaceuticals Incorporated Common Stock (LGND)

FairStock Score: 46/100 — MIXED

Key Financials

AI Analysis

AI-generated, general educational analysis — not personal investment advice.

I look for understandable, durable economics. Ligand is an unusual biopharma: it develops and licenses assets, with only 47 employees, and earns royalties rather than running a large lab. That can be a wonderful model. In the quarter ended 2026-06-30, revenue was $63.7M and net income was $48.5M, a 76.16% net margin. For fiscal 2025, revenue was $268.1M and net income was $124.5M, compared with a fiscal 2024 net loss of $4.0M on $167.1M of revenue. FairStock therefore labels it a TURNAROUND, returned to profit after a loss within three years. But the path is lumpy: fiscal Q1 2026 had $51.7M of revenue and a $13.3M net loss; fiscal Q3 2025 had $115.5M of revenue and $117.3M of net income. Those swings suggest milestone or royalty timing matters. At the 2026-10-13 close of $303.53, FairStock calculates a P/E of 31.23, P/B of 6.25, FCF yield of 2.0%, EV/EBITDA of 22.29, and Graham Number of $103.06. The price is far above that conservative value. ROE is 21.96%, but ROCE is only 3.99% and debt-to-equity is 1.17, so total-capital returns are less impressive. Altman Z 4.17 suggests solvency is okay; Piotroski 6/9 is middling. The royalty model may have a moat, but I need persistent high margins. Growth is real but lumpy. Here, the price already discounts much success.

In plain English: Ligand makes money by licensing biotech drugs and collecting payments when partnered products are sold. The latest quarter was very profitable, but profits have swung from losses to large gains, so the business strength is uneven. At $303.53, the stock price looks expensive compared with the value of its assets and a conservative estimate of earnings.

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Data as of 2026-10-13 close · note generated 2026-10-15 · model deepseek-flash

Sources (SEC EDGAR): fiscal Q2 2026 10-Q (period ended 2026-06-30) · fiscal Q1 2026 10-Q (period ended 2026-03-31) · fiscal Q3 2025 10-Q (period ended 2025-09-30) · fiscal Q2 2025 10-Q (period ended 2025-06-30) · FY2025 10-K (period ended 2025-12-31) · FY2024 10-K (period ended 2024-12-31) · FY2023 10-K (period ended 2023-12-31)

Fundamentals from company filings and market-data providers; prices are end-of-day, not real-time. AI-generated analysis is general and educational — not personal investment advice. Scoring methodology · Score test · Disclaimer