Walgreens Executive Summary

For this project, the class has been asked to evaluate all of the financial statements for the companies CVS and Walgreens. In the previous three parts, we have been asked to do research on the companies and evaluate many different ratios for each company. The following paragraphs will explain why I believe CVS would be the best company to invest in. Competition drives our economy and the growth of companies. If you take a look at the two companies were have been researching, they are fighting for the same client base. The numbers between the two companies show the difference in who is the better investment. According to Investopedia, “net profit margin is one of the most important indicators of a business’s financial health”. (1) If you take a look at CVS and Walgreen’s net profit margin, the 2016 values are 3.00% and 3.57% respectively while their 2015 values lie at 3.42% and 4.14% respectively. These numbers take into account the company’s net income and total revenue. Over the course of the year, CVS’s net profit margin declined .42% while Walgreens net profit margin declined .57%. Understandably with competition, both numbers will decline with clientele being separated and evened out by themselves and other retailers. This being said, Walgreens lost .15% more of their net income than CVS did.

If you take a look at the two companies inventory turnover ratio, CVS turns their inventory over in approximately 35.3 days while it takes Walgreens approximately 36.79 days to turn over their inventory. From an investor’s stand point, you would see that CVS has around 10.34 inventory turnovers in a year while Walgreens only has about 9.92. In the long run, those days add up and in turn, more cash happens to flow through the CVS store making the company as a whole more liquid than