Reviewing Walgreens Boots Alliance (NASDAQ:WBA) & Guardian Pharmacy Services (NYSE:GRDN)

Walgreens Boots Alliance (NASDAQ:WBA) and Guardian Pharmacy Services (NYSE:GRDN) are both retail/wholesale companies, but which is the better business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their profitability, dividends, institutional ownership, earnings, valuation, risk and analyst recommendations.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

58.6% of Walgreens Boots Alliance shares are owned by institutional investors. 17.5% of Walgreens Boots Alliance shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

This table compares Walgreens Boots Alliance and Guardian Pharmacy Services’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Walgreens Boots Alliance	-5.87%	17.61%	2.89%
Guardian Pharmacy Services	N/A	N/A	N/A

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Walgreens Boots Alliance and Guardian Pharmacy Services”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Walgreens Boots Alliance	$147.66 billion	0.07	-$8.64 billion	($10.24)	-1.11
Guardian Pharmacy Services	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A

Guardian Pharmacy Services has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Walgreens Boots Alliance.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent recommendations for Walgreens Boots Alliance and Guardian Pharmacy Services, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Walgreens Boots Alliance	4	9	2	0	1.87
Guardian Pharmacy Services	0	0	3	0	3.00

Walgreens Boots Alliance presently has a consensus target price of $13.27, indicating a potential upside of 16.70%. Guardian Pharmacy Services has a consensus target price of $22.00, indicating a potential upside of 1.86%. Given Walgreens Boots Alliance’s higher probable upside, equities research analysts clearly believe Walgreens Boots Alliance is more favorable than Guardian Pharmacy Services.

Summary

Walgreens Boots Alliance beats Guardian Pharmacy Services on 6 of the 9 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Walgreens Boots Alliance

Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. operates as a healthcare, pharmacy, and retail company in the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, and internationally. It operates through three segments: U.S. Retail Pharmacy, International, and U.S. Healthcare. The U.S. Retail Pharmacy segment engages in operation of the retail drugstores, health and wellness services, specialty, and home delivery pharmacy services, which offers health and wellness, beauty, personal care and consumables, and general merchandise. The International segment offers sale of prescription drugs and health and wellness, beauty, personal care, and other consumer products outside the United States; and operates pharmacy-led health and beauty retail businesses under the Boots brand stores in the United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland, and Thailand, as well as the Benavides brand in Mexico and the Ahumada brand in Chile. The U.S. Healthcare segment provides VillageMD, a national provider of value-based care with primary, multi-specialty, and urgent care providers serving patients in traditional clinic settings, in patients' homes and online appointments; Shields, a specialty pharmacy integrator and accelerator for hospitals; and CareCentrix, a participant in the post-acute and home care management sectors. Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. was founded in 1909 and is headquartered in Deerfield, Illinois.

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.