Critical Survey: BrightSpring Health Services (NASDAQ:BTSG) versus Cencora (NYSE:COR)

BrightSpring Health Services (NASDAQ:BTSG) and Cencora (NYSE:COR) are both large-cap healthcare companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their valuation, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, dividends, profitability, earnings and risk.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings and recommmendations for BrightSpring Health Services and Cencora, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
BrightSpring Health Services	0	2	17	1	2.95
Cencora	0	4	14	0	2.78

BrightSpring Health Services currently has a consensus target price of $70.71, suggesting a potential upside of 16.16%. Cencora has a consensus target price of $363.81, suggesting a potential upside of 6.83%. Given BrightSpring Health Services’ stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities analysts clearly believe BrightSpring Health Services is more favorable than Cencora.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares BrightSpring Health Services and Cencora”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
BrightSpring Health Services	$12.91 billion	0.93	$190.67 million	$1.66	36.67
Cencora	$321.33 billion	0.20	$1.55 billion	$13.46	25.30

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

Volatility and Risk

BrightSpring Health Services has a beta of 1.87, indicating that its share price is 87% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Cencora has a beta of 0.58, indicating that its share price is 42% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

97.5% of Cencora shares are held by institutional investors. 2.8% of BrightSpring Health Services shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.4% of Cencora shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

This table compares BrightSpring Health Services and Cencora’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
BrightSpring Health Services	2.55%	16.73%	5.24%
Cencora	0.79%	125.45%	4.18%

Summary

BrightSpring Health Services beats Cencora on 10 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About BrightSpring Health Services

BrightSpring Health Services, Inc. operates a home and community-based healthcare services platform in the United States. The company's platform focuses on delivering pharmacy and provider services, including clinical and supportive care in home and community settings to Medicare, Medicaid, and insured populations. It serves patients through clinical providers and pharmacists. The company was formerly known as Phoenix Parent Holdings Inc. and changed its name to BrightSpring Health Services, Inc. in May 2021. BrightSpring Health Services, Inc. was founded in 1974 and is headquartered in Louisville, Kentucky.

About Cencora

Cencora, Inc. sources and distributes pharmaceutical products. The company's U.S. Healthcare Solutions segment distributes pharmaceuticals, over-the-counter healthcare products, home healthcare supplies and equipment, and related services to acute care hospitals and health systems, independent and chain retail pharmacies, mail order pharmacies, medical clinics, long-term care and alternate site pharmacies, and other customers; provides pharmacy management, staffing, and other consulting services; supply management software to retail and institutional healthcare providers; packaging solutions to various institutional and retail healthcare providers; clinical trial support, product post-approval, and commercialization support services; data analytics, outcomes research, and additional services for biotechnology and pharmaceutical manufacturers; pharmaceuticals, vaccines, parasiticides, diagnostics, micro feed ingredients, and other products to the companion animal and production animal markets; and sales force services to manufacturers. This segment also distributes plasma and other blood products, injectable pharmaceuticals, vaccines, and other specialty products; and provides other services to physicians who specialize in various disease states, such as oncology, as well as to other healthcare providers, including hospitals and dialysis clinics. Its International Healthcare Solutions segment offers international pharmaceutical wholesale and related service, and global commercialization services; distributes pharmaceuticals, other healthcare products, and related services to pharmacies, doctors, health centers, and hospitals primarily in Europe; and provides specialty transportation and logistics services for the biopharmaceutical industry. The company was formerly known as AmerisourceBergen Corporation and changed its name to Cencora, Inc. in August 2023. Cencora, Inc. was incorporated in 2001 and is headquartered in Conshohocken, Pennsylvania.