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Royalty-based biopharma that licenses drug technologies (like Captisol) and collects royalties on partners' approved drugs.
Royalty-based biopharma that licenses drug technologies (like Captisol) and collects royalties on partners' approved drugs.
Earns royalties on partners' drug sales, such as Amgen's Kyprolis, and sells Captisol, an ingredient that makes drugs dissolve, to drugmakers that use it in their products, plus milestone payments when partners hit trial or sales targets. Partners fund most development, so Ligand carries few such costs itself. It spun off its antibody platform, OmniAb, in 2022.
Moat: narrow (IP / patents, scale). A broad portfolio of licensed technology and royalty stakes spreads risk across many partners' drugs.
Headquarters: San Diego, California, United States · Founded: 1987 · Employees: 47
Size Ligand Pharmaceuticals (LGND) is a United States Health Care company (Pharmaceuticals: Major) with a market value of $6.12B, the 1047th largest of 3,117 United States companies the cockpit tracks. Shares closed at $306.20 on 6 Nov 2026.
Performance Over six months the shares gained 38.3%, against -4.5% for the median peer and -1.1% for the United States market (cap-weighted) — 4th highest of 20 in its peer set.
Growth Revenue grew 1.0% over the last twelve months (peer median +7.6%); the operating margin is 14.4% (peer median 19.6%).
Valuation It trades at 28.0× forward earnings against a peer median of 24.0× (7th most expensive of 16).
Price implies For today's price to make sense, revenue must grow about 58% a year for seven years (Req g). Recent delivered growth is +8%, so the hurdle is +50 pp: the price needs faster growth than the company has been delivering — of companies that just grew 25–50% a year, 93.8% slowed down over the next four years.
Capital Return on invested capital runs 8.2 points below its cost of capital (10.0% WACC).
Credit Ligand Pharmaceuticals has 2 bonds outstanding ($1.16B).
Short interest Short interest is 12.6% of the free float (15 Oct 2026).
Next results Next results expected around 4 Mar 2027 (exchange calendar; dates can move).
| TTM | FY2025 | FY2024 | FY2023 | FY2022 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | $254M | $268M | $167M | $131M | $196M |
| Revenue growth | — | +60% | +27% | -33% | — |
| Gross profit | $207M | $221M | $121M | $88.0M | $119M |
| EBITDA | $73.5M | $80.9M | $60.4M | $47.2M | $56.2M |
| Net income | $51.5M | $124M | -$4.03M | $52.2M | -$33.4M |
| Free cash flow | $90.6M | $48.9M | $94.8M | $45.1M | $120M |
| Capital expenditure | $33.6M | $11.3M | $19.6M | $53.8M | $17.9M |
| Total debt | $1.15B | $451M | $7.11M | $6.17M | $87.7M |
The default views of Competitor Analysis ▸ Charts, drawn from the same data. Open them in the cockpit to change the axes, pin companies and read every value.
| Company | Market cap | 6M return | Revenue growth | Op. margin | Forward P/E | Req g |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ligand Pharmaceuticals LGND | $6.12B | +38% | +1% | 14% | 28.0× | 57.8% |
| Royalty Pharma RPRX | $38.8B | +33% | +11% | 66% | 11.3× | 9.9% |
| Innoviva INVA | $1.38B | -17% | +18% | 36% | 9.4× | -15.4% |
Peer set: Industry: the same industry and sector in any market, nearest in size. This is the same default set the interactive Competitor Analysis opens with.
| Measure | LGND | Peer median | Rank in peer set |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1-month return | +3.8% | +1.3% | 8th highest of 21 |
| 6-month return | +38.3% | -4.5% | 4th highest of 20 |
| Distance from 52-week high | -6.2% | -16.8% | 3rd highest of 21 |
| Revenue growth (TTM) | +1.0% | +7.6% | 5th lowest of 17 |
| Operating margin | 14.4% | 19.6% | 7th lowest of 18 |
| Forward P/E | 28.0× | 24.0× | 7th most expensive of 16 |
| Growth the price implies (Req g, 7 yrs) | 57.8% | 3.5% | most demanding of 13 |
| Growth delivered (Del g) | +7.5% | +12.1% | 3rd lowest of 13 |
| Hurdle (Req g minus delivered) | +50.3 pp | -13.7 pp | most demanding of 13 |
| ROIC minus cost of capital | -8.2 pp | +1.3 pp | 6th lowest of 18 |
| EV / EBITDA | 92.9× | 14.2× | most expensive of 10 |
| Net debt / EBITDA | 9.6× | -0.2× | 2nd most indebted of 11 |
| Company | Market | Market cap | 6M return | Revenue growth | Op. margin | Forward P/E | Req g | Delivered g |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ligand Pharmaceuticals LGND | United States | $6.12B | +38% | +1% | 14% | 28.0× | 57.8% | +7.5% |
| Mirum Pharmaceuticals MIRM | United States | $6.12B | -13% | +42% | -21% | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| Belite Bio, Inc. ADR BLTE | United States | $6.20B | 0% | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| Biocon BIOCON.NS | India | $6.28B | -4% | +6% | 8% | 56.4× | n/a | n/a |
| Abbott India ABBOTINDIA.NS | India | $5.93B | -1% | +6% | 28% | 32.4× | 11.4% | +10.0% |
| Shanghai Allist Pharmaceuticals 688578.SS | China | $5.90B | -6% | +39% | 47% | 13.8× | 1.8% | +519.6% |
| Samsung Epis 0126Z0.KS | South Korea | $6.39B | -36% | n/a | -25% | 24.0× | n/a | n/a |
| Gan & Lee Pharmaceuticals 603087.SS | China | $6.40B | +21% | +14% | 20% | 29.7× | n/a | n/a |
| Veradermics MANE | United States | $5.80B | +31% | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| China Resources Sanjiu Medical & Pharmaceutical 000999.SZ | China | $6.48B | 0% | +4% | 14% | 12.8× | -6.3% | +18.4% |
| Ionis Pharmaceuticals IONS | United States | $6.55B | -48% | -7% | -68% | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| Alkem Laboratories ALKEM.NS | India | $6.67B | -5% | +13% | 17% | 27.4× | 24.3% | +10.7% |
| Apotex Health APTX.TO | Canada | $5.62B | n/a | +4% | 32% | 18.6× | -13.5% | +4.2% |
| Gland Pharma GLAND.NS | India | $5.53B | +69% | +18% | 20% | 39.0× | 28.0% | +13.3% |
| Oruka Therapeutics ORKA | United States | $6.81B | +59% | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| PTC Therapeutics PTCT | United States | $5.47B | -11% | -35% | 22% | 34.8× | 8.0% | +35.4% |
| RemeGen 688331.SS | China | $6.90B | -26% | +272% | 61% | 11.9× | 2.8% | +303.3% |
| Supernus Pharmaceuticals SUPN | United States | $5.43B | -49% | +16% | 45% | 6.7× | 4.2% | +13.9% |
| ONO Pharmaceutical 4528.T | Japan | $7.01B | +2% | -2% | 22% | 14.7× | -8.2% | +10.8% |
| Amneal Pharmaceuticals AMRX | United States | $7.01B | +53% | +9% | 17% | 17.7× | 15.2% | +8.7% |
| Beijing TongRenTang 600085.SS | China | $5.27B | -8% | -17% | 8% | 31.2× | 2.7% | +6.2% |
Ligand Pharmaceuticals has 2 bonds outstanding with $1.16B face value.