Analyzing Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) & Prestige Consumer Healthcare (NYSE:PBH)

Prestige Consumer Healthcare (NYSE:PBH) and Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) are both medical companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, earnings, institutional ownership, profitability, dividends, valuation and risk.

Risk and Volatility

Prestige Consumer Healthcare has a beta of 0.35, indicating that its stock price is 65% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Abbott Laboratories has a beta of 0.63, indicating that its stock price is 37% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and recommmendations for Prestige Consumer Healthcare and Abbott Laboratories, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Prestige Consumer Healthcare	1	3	2	0	2.17
Abbott Laboratories	1	4	19	2	2.85

Prestige Consumer Healthcare currently has a consensus target price of $70.75, suggesting a potential upside of 49.91%. Abbott Laboratories has a consensus target price of $118.30, suggesting a potential upside of 27.05%. Given Prestige Consumer Healthcare’s higher possible upside, research analysts clearly believe Prestige Consumer Healthcare is more favorable than Abbott Laboratories.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Prestige Consumer Healthcare and Abbott Laboratories”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Prestige Consumer Healthcare	$1.09 billion	2.05	$190.30 million	$3.91	12.07
Abbott Laboratories	$44.33 billion	3.66	$6.52 billion	$3.57	26.08

Abbott Laboratories has higher revenue and earnings than Prestige Consumer Healthcare. Prestige Consumer Healthcare is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Abbott Laboratories, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

This table compares Prestige Consumer Healthcare and Abbott Laboratories’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Prestige Consumer Healthcare	17.48%	11.54%	6.16%
Abbott Laboratories	13.90%	17.62%	10.01%

Insider & Institutional Ownership

100.0% of Prestige Consumer Healthcare shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 75.2% of Abbott Laboratories shares are owned by institutional investors. 1.4% of Prestige Consumer Healthcare shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.5% of Abbott Laboratories shares are owned 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.

Summary

Abbott Laboratories beats Prestige Consumer Healthcare on 10 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Prestige Consumer Healthcare

Prestige Consumer Healthcare Inc., together with its subsidiaries, develops, manufactures, markets, distributes, and sells over-the-counter (OTC) health and personal care products in the United States and internationally. The company operates in two segments, North American OTC Healthcare and International OTC Healthcare. It offers BC/Goody's analgesic powders, Boudreaux's Butt Paste baby ointments, Chloraseptic sore throat liquids and lozenges, Clear Eyes for eye redness relief, Compound W wart removals, DenTek for PEG oral care, Debrox ear wax removals, and Dramamine for motion sickness relief. The company also provides Fleet adult enemas/suppositories, Gaviscon upset stomach remedies, Luden's cough drops, Monistat vaginal anti-fungal, Nix lice/parasite treatments, Summer's Eve feminine hygiene, TheraTears dry eye relief, Fess nasal saline spray and washes, and Hydralyte for oral rehydration products. It sells its products through mass merchandisers; and drug, food, dollar, convenience, and club stores, as well as e-commerce channels. The company was formerly known as Prestige Brands Holdings, Inc. and changed its name to Prestige Consumer Healthcare Inc. in August 2018. Prestige Consumer Healthcare Inc. was founded in 1996 and is headquartered in Tarrytown, New York.

About Abbott Laboratories

Abbott Laboratories, together with its subsidiaries, discovers, develops, manufactures, and sells health care products worldwide. It operates in four segments: Established Pharmaceutical Products, Diagnostic Products, Nutritional Products, and Medical Devices. The company provides generic pharmaceuticals for the treatment of pancreatic exocrine insufficiency, irritable bowel syndrome or biliary spasm, intrahepatic cholestasis or depressive symptoms, gynecological disorder, hormone replacement therapy, dyslipidemia, hypertension, hypothyroidism, Ménière’s disease and vestibular vertigo, pain, fever, inflammation, and migraine, as well as provides anti-infective clarithromycin, influenza vaccine, and products to regulate physiological rhythm of the colon. It also offers laboratory and transfusion medicine systems in the areas of immunoassay, clinical chemistry, hematology, and transfusion; molecular diagnostics polymerase chain reaction instrument systems that automate the extraction, purification, and preparation of DNA and RNA from patient samples, and detect and measure infectious agents; point of care systems; cartridges for testing blood gas, chemistry, electrolytes, coagulation, and immunoassay; rapid diagnostics lateral flow testing products; molecular point-of-care testing for HIV, SARS-CoV-2, influenza A and B, RSV, and strep A; cardiometabolic test systems; drug and alcohol test, and remote patient monitoring and consumer self-test systems; and informatics and automation solutions for laboratories. In addition, the company provides pediatric and adult nutritional products; rhythm management, electrophysiology, heart failure, vascular, and structural heart devices for the treatment of cardiovascular diseases; diabetes care products, such as glucose and blood glucose monitoring systems; and neuromodulation devices for the management of chronic pain and movement disorders. Abbott Laboratories was founded in 1888 and is based in North Chicago, Illinois.