Guardian Pharmacy Services (NYSE:GRDN) versus Option Care Health (NASDAQ:OPCH) Critical Analysis

Guardian Pharmacy Services (NYSE:GRDN) and Option Care Health (NASDAQ:OPCH) are both mid-cap healthcare companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their risk, profitability, earnings, institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, valuation and dividends.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and target prices for Guardian Pharmacy Services and Option Care Health, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Guardian Pharmacy Services	0	1	8	0	2.89
Option Care Health	0	7	7	0	2.50

Guardian Pharmacy Services currently has a consensus target price of $43.83, indicating a potential downside of 2.91%. Option Care Health has a consensus target price of $29.92, indicating a potential upside of 22.03%. Given Option Care Health’s higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Option Care Health is more favorable than Guardian Pharmacy Services.

Risk & Volatility

Guardian Pharmacy Services has a beta of 0.06, indicating that its share price is 94% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Option Care Health has a beta of 0.61, indicating that its share price is 39% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Guardian Pharmacy Services and Option Care Health’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Guardian Pharmacy Services	4.50%	29.97%	16.18%
Option Care Health	3.68%	18.74%	7.25%

Institutional & Insider Ownership

98.0% of Option Care Health shares are held by institutional investors. 33.0% of Guardian Pharmacy Services shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 1.7% of Option Care Health shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Guardian Pharmacy Services and Option Care Health”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Guardian Pharmacy Services	$1.45 billion	1.55	$49.22 million	$1.03	43.83
Option Care Health	$5.65 billion	0.65	$207.59 million	$1.33	18.44

Option Care Health has higher revenue and earnings than Guardian Pharmacy Services. Option Care Health is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Guardian Pharmacy Services, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Summary

Guardian Pharmacy Services beats Option Care Health on 8 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Guardian Pharmacy Services

Guardian Pharmacy Services, Inc., a pharmacy service company, provides a suite of technology-enabled services designed to help residents of long-term health care facilities (LTCFs) in the United States. Its individualized clinical, drug dispensing, and administration capabilities are used to serve the needs of residents in lower acuity LTCFs, such as assisted living facilities and behavioral health facilities and group homes. The company’s Guardian Compass includes dashboards created using data from its data warehouse to help its local pharmacies plan, track, and optimize their business operations; and GuardianShield Programs for LTCFs. The company was founded in 2003 and is based in Atlanta, Georgia.

About Option Care Health

Option Care Health, Inc. offers home and alternate site infusion services in the United States. The company provides anti-infective therapies; home infusion services to treat heart failures; home parenteral nutrition and enteral nutrition support services for numerous acute and chronic conditions, such as stroke, cancer, and gastrointestinal diseases; immunoglobulin infusion therapies for the treatment of immune deficiencies; and treatments for chronic inflammatory disorders, including crohn’s disease, plaque psoriasis, psoriatic arthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, ulcerative colitis, and other chronic inflammatory disorders. It also offers treatments to manage the progression of neurological disorders, such as multiple sclerosis, duchenne muscular dystrophy, and other neurological disorder; infusion therapies for bleeding disorders, such as hemophilia and von Willebrand diseases; therapies for women with high-risk pregnancies; and other infusion therapies to treat various conditions, including pain management, chemotherapy, and respiratory medications, as well as nursing services. The company markets its services through patient referrals, including physicians, hospital discharge planners, hospital personnel, health maintenance organizations, and preferred provider organizations. Option Care Health, Inc. is headquartered in Bannockburn, Illinois.