Ligand Pharmaceuticals
LGND on Nasdaq. Ligand Pharmaceuticals sells investors a share of royalties on medicines. Market value $6.1bn.
Price checks use the past 12 months to June 2026. Some use the latest annual report instead, as marked. Quality checks use five annual reports, the latest for the year to December 2025.
We can't read total debt from the filing, so debt is left out.
Should I look at this?
Good business, but not cheap right now
Why it could be worth it
What to watch out for
See cheaper Health care stocks on the list
This is not advice. Check the numbers below.
For every $100 of what the whole company costs, it produced $0.83 of spare cash last year. A savings account pays about $4.
You pay 63.8 years of operating profit for the business. The average large US company costs around 18.
The filings do not give us enough to work this out.
Quality score: 72 of 100. Price score: 23 of 100. Our list needs 70 on quality and 60 on price.
$296.94 a share, 69% above its 1-year low
Over the past year the price has ranged from $175.89 to $326.63.
Pays no dividend
Prices from Tuesday’s close (6 October).
Five years of cash, in billions
| Revenue | |||||
| Revenue | $242m | $196m | $131m | $167m | $268m |
| Operating margin | |||||
| Operating margin | 43.0% | 1.5% | 9.1% | -13.5% | 15.3% |
| Debt to equity | |||||
| Debt to equity | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| Shares outstanding | |||||
| Shares outstanding | 0.02bn | 0.02bn | 0.02bn | 0.02bn | 0.02bn |
Health checks
- Free cash flow positive5 of 5 years
- Accounting looks honest (Beneish)Not enough data
- Financial strength (Piotroski)4 of 7 checks we could run
- Profit backed by cash (accruals)Yes
- DebtUnknown
- Revenue growth, five yearsStrong, 10.4% a year
- Buying back its own sharesNo, 18% more shares since 2021
The quarter to June 2026
How the business did, compared with the same quarter a year earlier.
- Sales: $64 million last quarter, up 34% on a year ago.
- Profit: $49 million, up 901% on a year ago.
- It keeps 33 cents of each $1 of sales as operating profit, after losing 18 cents a year earlier.
- 10% more shares than a year ago. Each share owns a bit less of the company.
- Sales grew on a year ago in each of the last 4 quarters.
| Quarter to | Amount |
|---|---|
| September 2024 | $52m |
| December 2024 | $43m |
| March 2025 | $45m |
| June 2025 | $48m |
| September 2025 | $115m |
| December 2025 | $60m |
| March 2026 | $52m |
| June 2026 | $64m |
| Quarter to | Amount |
|---|---|
| September 2024 | -$7m |
| December 2024 | -$31m |
| March 2025 | -$42m |
| June 2025 | $5m |
| September 2025 | $117m |
| December 2025 | $45m |
| March 2026 | -$13m |
| June 2026 | $49m |
From the company's quarterly reports to the SEC.
Dates
- Next results (estimated)
- n/a
- Last annual report (10-K)
- 27 February 2026
- Next quarterly (estimated, 10-Q)
- 6 November 2026
Who owns it
1 long-term investor we follow owns it, unchanged from 1 last quarter. 415 funds in all.
| Fund | Value | Share of that fund | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gotham Asset ManagementJoel Greenblatt | $1m | <0.1% | Cut |
Largest holders overall
- BlackRock$980mAdded
- Invesco$380mAdded
- Vanguard Portfolio Management$360mAdded
- Jupiter Topco$329m
- Vanguard Capital Management$275mAdded
- State Street$261mAdded
- FMR$241mAdded
- Franklin Resources$238mAdded
- Congress Asset Management$209mAdded
- Geode Capital Management$186mAdded
From 13F filings for the quarter ended 30 June 2026.
Big holders and activists
5 investors own more than 5%.
- BlackRock, Inc.Passive investor14.5%−1.1 ptsSince 30 September 2025
- Invesco Ltd.Passive investor6.1%Since 30 June 2026
- Vanguard Portfolio ManagementPassive investor5.6%Since 31 March 2026
- JANUS HENDERSON GROUP PLCPassive investor5.3%−0.2 ptsSince 30 September 2025
- Vanguard Capital ManagementPassive investor5.0%Since 31 March 2026
- The Vanguard GroupPassive investorSold down below 5%Since 13 March 2026
| Holder | Stake | Since | |
|---|---|---|---|
BlackRock, Inc. Passive investor | 14.5%−1.1 pts | 30 September 2025 | |
Invesco Ltd. Passive investor | 6.1% | 30 June 2026 | |
Vanguard Portfolio Management Passive investor | 5.6% | 31 March 2026 | |
JANUS HENDERSON GROUP PLC Passive investor | 5.3%−0.2 pts | 30 September 2025 | |
Vanguard Capital Management Passive investor | 5.0% | 31 March 2026 | |
The Vanguard Group Passive investor | Sold down below 5% | 13 March 2026 |
From Schedule 13D and 13G filings: anyone owning more than 5% must file one.
What insiders did
No insider bought shares on the open market in the last 12 months. 9 sold $35m, $24m of it under preset trading plans.
- Reardon AndrewCLO & SecretarySoldunder a preset trading plan
- Date
- 2 October 2026
- Shares
- 5,000
- Price
- $304.07
- Value
- $2m
- Zimmermann MartineDirectorSold
- Date
- 10 September 2026
- Shares
- 1,200
- Price
- $285.00
- Value
- $342,000
- Reardon AndrewCLO & SecretarySoldunder a preset trading plan
- Date
- 3 September 2026
- Shares
- 5,000
- Price
- $286.09
- Value
- $1m
- Espinoza OctavioChief Financial OfficerSoldunder a preset trading plan
- Date
- 12 August 2026
- Shares
- 31,641
- Price
- $292.06
- Value
- $9m
- Haas JasonDirectorSold
- Date
- 12 August 2026
- Shares
- 7,138
- Price
- $292.81
- Value
- $2m
- Reardon AndrewCLO & SecretarySoldunder a preset trading plan
- Date
- 3 August 2026
- Shares
- 5,000
- Price
- $288.99
- Value
- $1m
- Reardon AndrewCLO & SecretarySoldunder a preset trading plan
- Date
- 1 July 2026
- Shares
- 5,000
- Price
- $313.28
- Value
- $2m
- Sabba Stephen LDirectorSold
- Date
- 16 June 2026
- Shares
- 2,145
- Price
- $254.00
- Value
- $544,830
- Haas JasonDirectorSold
- Date
- 12 June 2026
- Shares
- 6,461
- Price
- $255.58
- Value
- $2m
- Aryeh JasonDirectorSold
- Date
- 11 June 2026
- Shares
- 4,500
- Price
- $250.00
- Value
- $1m
| Date | Who | Did | Shares | Price | Value |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 October 2026 | Reardon Andrew CLO & Secretary | Sold under a preset trading plan | 5,000 | $304.07 | $2m |
| 10 September 2026 | Zimmermann Martine Director | Sold | 1,200 | $285.00 | $342,000 |
| 3 September 2026 | Reardon Andrew CLO & Secretary | Sold under a preset trading plan | 5,000 | $286.09 | $1m |
| 12 August 2026 | Espinoza Octavio Chief Financial Officer | Sold under a preset trading plan | 31,641 | $292.06 | $9m |
| 12 August 2026 | Haas Jason Director | Sold | 7,138 | $292.81 | $2m |
| 3 August 2026 | Reardon Andrew CLO & Secretary | Sold under a preset trading plan | 5,000 | $288.99 | $1m |
| 1 July 2026 | Reardon Andrew CLO & Secretary | Sold under a preset trading plan | 5,000 | $313.28 | $2m |
| 16 June 2026 | Sabba Stephen L Director | Sold | 2,145 | $254.00 | $544,830 |
| 12 June 2026 | Haas Jason Director | Sold | 6,461 | $255.58 | $2m |
| 11 June 2026 | Aryeh Jason Director | Sold | 4,500 | $250.00 | $1m |
From Form 4 filings: insiders must report trades in their own company's shares within two days.
Warning signs in its filings
Problems the company itself reported to the SEC, in its own words.
None of the warning signs we check for were found.
We look for five warning signs: doubt it can keep going, weak checks on its own accounts, a notice that its past accounts can't be relied on, a change of auditor, and one customer bringing in a big share of sales. We don't check lawsuits, investigations or debt yet.
We checked the auditor's report, internal controls, restatement notices, auditor changes and big customers in the 10-K filed 27 Feb 2026, plus the 10-Q filed 7 Aug 2026 and 11 later 8-Ks.
A 10-K is the yearly report every US company files with the SEC. An 8-K is a short notice of a big event.
What could go wrong
- It isn't cheap on profits: 63.8× operating profit.
Whether the price already reflects the risks is what the deep dive is for.
The deep dive
Everything above is arithmetic on public filings. The deep dive reads the last ten years of annual reports, the proxy statements, and the earnings calls, then argues the case the way Buffett, Klarman, and Hohn would, and checks every claim against the source.
- What the business is worth, as a range, and the margin of safety at today’s price
- Prices to start buying, buy, and buy hard
- The three things that would make this a mistake
- Every number footnoted to the filing it came from
Your first deep dive is free.
Not advice. Numbers on this page come from SEC filings and are updated each night; prices are updated again after the US market closes. The five-year figures are rounded.