Reviewing Savara (NASDAQ:SVRA) & Guardian Pharmacy Services (NYSE:GRDN)

Guardian Pharmacy Services (NYSE:GRDN) and Savara (NASDAQ:SVRA) are both small-cap medical companies, but which is the better business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their dividends, valuation, earnings, analyst recommendations, profitability, institutional ownership and risk.

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Guardian Pharmacy Services	-6.90%	-52.41%	-24.17%
Savara	N/A	-69.05%	-54.84%

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Guardian Pharmacy Services and Savara”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Guardian Pharmacy Services	$1.23 billion	1.48	-$87.29 million	($1.52)	-18.93
Savara	N/A	N/A	-$95.88 million	($0.50)	-7.90

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

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current recommendations and price targets for Guardian Pharmacy Services and Savara, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Guardian Pharmacy Services	1	0	3	0	2.50
Savara	1	1	6	1	2.78

Guardian Pharmacy Services presently has a consensus price target of $29.33, suggesting a potential upside of 1.96%. Savara has a consensus price target of $7.83, suggesting a potential upside of 98.31%. Given Savara’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Savara is more favorable than Guardian Pharmacy Services.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

87.9% of Savara shares are owned by institutional investors. 63.7% of Guardian Pharmacy Services shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 5.3% of Savara shares are owned by 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.

Volatility and Risk

Guardian Pharmacy Services has a beta of 0.96, suggesting that its share price is 4% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Savara has a beta of 0.45, suggesting that its share price is 55% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Savara beats Guardian Pharmacy Services 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 Savara

Savara Inc., formerly Mast Therapeutics, Inc., is a clinical-stage pharmaceutical company. The Company is focused on the development and commercialization of novel therapies for the treatment of patients with rare respiratory diseases. Its pipeline includes AeroVanc, Molgradex and AIR001. AeroVanc is an inhaled formulation of vancomycin, which the Company is developing for the treatment of persistent methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, lung infection in cystic fibrosis patients. Molgradex is an inhaled formulation of recombinant human granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor. It is developing Molgradex for the treatment of autoimmune pulmonary alveolar proteinosis, a rare lung disease. AIR001 is a sodium nitrite solution for inhalation via nebulization. AIR001 is in Phase II clinical development for the treatment of heart failure with preserved ejection fraction, also known as diastolic heart failure or heart failure with preserved systolic function.