ICU Medical (NASDAQ:ICUI) and Cresco Labs (OTCMKTS:CRLBF) Critical Survey

Cresco Labs (OTCMKTS:CRLBF) and ICU Medical (NASDAQ:ICUI) are both medical companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, earnings, analyst recommendations, dividends, profitability, institutional ownership and valuation.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and recommmendations for Cresco Labs and ICU Medical, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Cresco Labs	0	2	0	0	2.00
ICU Medical	1	1	3	1	2.67

ICU Medical has a consensus target price of $181.75, indicating a potential upside of 35.11%. Given ICU Medical’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe ICU Medical is more favorable than Cresco Labs.

Profitability

This table compares Cresco Labs and ICU Medical’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Cresco Labs	-7.79%	-14.25%	-3.90%
ICU Medical	-1.56%	7.24%	3.50%

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Cresco Labs and ICU Medical”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Cresco Labs	$724.34 million	0.44	-$74.44 million	($0.15)	-5.97
ICU Medical	$2.32 billion	1.43	-$117.69 million	($0.31)	-433.94

Cresco Labs has higher earnings, but lower revenue than ICU Medical. ICU Medical is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Cresco Labs, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

0.1% of Cresco Labs shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 96.1% of ICU Medical shares are owned by institutional investors. 1.5% of ICU Medical shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Volatility and Risk

Cresco Labs has a beta of 1.51, indicating that its stock price is 51% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, ICU Medical has a beta of 0.83, indicating that its stock price is 17% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

ICU Medical beats Cresco Labs on 11 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Cresco Labs

Cresco Labs Inc., together with its subsidiaries, cultivates, manufactures, and sells retail and medical cannabis products in the United States. It provides cannabis in flowers, vape pens, live resins, disposable pens, and extracts under the Cresco brand; vape carts, vape pens, flower, popcorn, shake, pre-rolls, shorties, and concentrates under the High Supply brand; vapes and gummies under the Good News brand; vapes and edibles under the Wonder Wellness Co. brand; and tinctures, capsules, salves, and sublingual oils under the Remedi brand. The company also offers cannabis flowers under the FloraCal brand; and chocolate and toffee confections and fruit-forward gummies under the Mindy's Edibles brand, as well as licenses the Kiva brand, which produces cannabis infused edibles, including chocolate confections, gummies, mints, and tarts. In addition, the company offers cannabis-infused edibles under the Sunnyside brand. The company was incorporated in 1990 and is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois.

About ICU Medical

ICU Medical, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, develops, manufactures, and sells medical devices used in infusion therapy, vascular access, and vital care applications worldwide. Its infusion therapy products include needlefree products under the MicroClave, MicroClave Clear, and NanoClave brands; Neutron catheter patency devices; ChemoClave and ChemoLock closed system transfer devices, which are used to limit the escape of hazardous drugs or vapor concentrations, block the transfer of environmental contaminants into the system, and eliminates the risk of needlestick injury; Tego needle free connectors; Deltec GRIPPER non-coring needles for portal access; and ClearGuard, SwabCap, and SwabTip disinfection caps. The company provides IV therapy and diluents, such as sodium chloride, dextrose, balanced electrolyte solutions, lactated ringer's, ringer's, mannitol, sodium chloride/dextrose, and sterile water; and irrigation solutions comprising sodium chloride and sterile water irrigation, physiologic solutions, ringer's irrigation, acetic acid irrigation, glycine irrigation, sorbitol-mannitol irrigation, flexible containers, and pour bottle options. It offers infusion pumps under the Plum 360 and Plum Duo brands; ambulatory and syringe infusion hardware products; IV mediation safety software, including ICU Medical MedNet, an enterprise-class medication management platform; LifeShield and PharmGuard medication infusion safety software; hemodynamic monitoring products; anesthesia systems and devices, breathing circuits, ventilation, respiratory, and specialty airway products; temperature management solutions; anesthesia/pain management trays and components; and professional services. The company's customers include acute care hospitals, wholesalers, ambulatory clinics, and alternate site facilities, including outpatient clinics, home health care providers, and long-term care facilities. ICU Medical, Inc. was founded in 1984 and is based in San Clemente, California.