IQVIA (NYSE:IQV) versus BioLife Solutions (NASDAQ:BLFS) Critical Comparison

IQVIA (NYSE:IQV) and BioLife Solutions (NASDAQ:BLFS) are both healthcare companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their valuation, dividends, earnings, risk, profitability, analyst recommendations and institutional ownership.

Profitability

This table compares IQVIA and BioLife Solutions’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
IQVIA	8.10%	30.25%	6.54%
BioLife Solutions	53.29%	2.70%	2.49%

Institutional & Insider Ownership

89.6% of IQVIA shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 93.2% of BioLife Solutions shares are held by institutional investors. 1.7% of IQVIA shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 2.2% of BioLife Solutions shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares IQVIA and BioLife Solutions”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
IQVIA	$16.98 billion	2.35	$1.36 billion	$8.06	30.10
BioLife Solutions	$96.21 million	17.79	-$4.59 million	$1.16	30.20

IQVIA has higher revenue and earnings than BioLife Solutions. IQVIA is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than BioLife Solutions, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Risk & Volatility

IQVIA has a beta of 1.18, meaning that its share price is 18% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, BioLife Solutions has a beta of 1.93, meaning that its share price is 93% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and recommmendations for IQVIA and BioLife Solutions, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
IQVIA	0	3	13	1	2.88
BioLife Solutions	1	8	1	1	2.18

IQVIA presently has a consensus price target of $241.88, indicating a potential downside of 0.29%. BioLife Solutions has a consensus price target of $31.38, indicating a potential downside of 10.43%. Given IQVIA’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe IQVIA is more favorable than BioLife Solutions.

Summary

IQVIA beats BioLife Solutions on 8 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About IQVIA

IQVIA Holdings Inc. engages in the provision of advanced analytics, technology solutions, and clinical research services to the life sciences industry in the Americas, Europe, Africa, and the Asia-Pacific. It operates through three segments: Technology & Analytics Solutions, Research & Development Solutions, and Contract Sales & Medical Solutions. The Technology & Analytics Solutions segment offers a range of cloud-based applications and related implementation services; real world solutions that enable life sciences and provider customers to generate and disseminate evidence, which informs health care decision making and improves patients’ outcomes; and strategic and implementation consulting services, such as advanced analytics and commercial processes outsourcing services. This segment also provides country level performance metrics related to sales of pharmaceutical products, prescribing trends, medical treatment, and promotional activity across various channels, including retail, hospital, and mail order; and measurement of sales or prescribing activity at the regional, zip code, and individual prescriber level. The Research & Development Solutions segment offers project management and clinical monitoring; clinical trial support; strategic planning and design services; and patient and site centric solutions, as well as central laboratory, genomic, bioanalytical, ADME, discovery, and vaccine and biomarker laboratory services. The Contract Sales & Medical Solutions segment provides health care provider and patient engagement services, and scientific strategy and medical affairs services. It serves pharmaceutical, biotechnology, device and diagnostic, and consumer health companies. The company has a collaboration with argenx SE. The company was formerly known as Quintiles IMS Holdings, Inc. and changed its name to IQVIA Holdings Inc. in November 2017. The company is headquartered in Durham, North Carolina.

About BioLife Solutions

BioLife Solutions, Inc. develops, manufactures, and markets bioproduction tools and services for the cell and gene therapy (CGT) industry in the United States, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and internationally. The company’s products are used in the basic and applied research, and commercial manufacturing of biologic-based therapies. It offers proprietary biopreservation media products, including HypoThermosol FRS and CryoStor Freeze Media that are formulated to mitigate preservation-induced, delayed-onset cell damage and death; bioproduction tools, such as human platelet lysates for cell expansion and CellSeal closed system vials that are used in CGT; and the ThawSTAR line that comprises of a family of automated thawing devices for frozen cell and gene therapies packaged in cryovials and cryobags. The company also provides cryogenic freezer technology for controlled rate freezing and cryogenic storage of biologic materials; ultra-low temperature mechanical freezers; evo shipping containers that are cloud-connected passive storage and transport containers for temperature-sensitive biologics and pharmaceuticals; liquid nitrogen laboratory freezers, cryogenic equipment, and accessories; and biological and pharmaceutical storage and transport services. It markets and sells its products directly, as well as through third party distributors. The company was incorporated in 1987 and is headquartered in Bothell, Washington.