Reviewing Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) and Ayr Wellness (OTCMKTS:AYRWF)

Ayr Wellness (OTCMKTS:AYRWF) and Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) are both medical companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their valuation, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, risk, dividends, earnings and profitability.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current recommendations and price targets for Ayr Wellness and Abbott Laboratories, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Ayr Wellness	0	0	0	0	0.00
Abbott Laboratories	0	5	19	2	2.88

Abbott Laboratories has a consensus target price of $119.43, indicating a potential upside of 35.14%. Given Abbott Laboratories’ stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Abbott Laboratories is more favorable than Ayr Wellness.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Ayr Wellness and Abbott Laboratories”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Ayr Wellness	$463.63 million	0.00	-$359.31 million	($2.67)	-0.01
Abbott Laboratories	$44.33 billion	3.47	$6.52 billion	$3.57	24.76

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

Volatility & Risk

Ayr Wellness has a beta of 1.37, indicating that its stock price is 37% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Abbott Laboratories has a beta of 0.65, indicating that its stock price is 35% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Ayr Wellness and Abbott Laboratories’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Ayr Wellness	N/A	N/A	N/A
Abbott Laboratories	13.90%	17.62%	10.01%

Insider and Institutional Ownership

0.9% of Ayr Wellness shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 75.2% of Abbott Laboratories shares are owned by institutional investors. 8.1% of Ayr Wellness shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 0.5% of Abbott Laboratories shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Summary

Abbott Laboratories beats Ayr Wellness on 13 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Ayr Wellness

Ayr Wellness Inc. operates as a vertically-integrated multi-state cannabis operator that cultivates, manufactures, and retails cannabis products and branded cannabis packaged goods. It owns and operates a chain of cannabis retail stores under AYR, Liberty Health Sciences, and The Dispensary brand names. The company was formerly known as Ayr Strategies Inc. and changed its name to Ayr Wellness Inc. in February 2021. Ayr Wellness Inc. was incorporated in 2017 and is headquartered in Miami, Florida.

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.