Pharmacy Business Valuation Benchmarks

Business owners, prospective buyers, and industry investors rely on a diverse set of financial benchmarks to assess the value of a business. We have compiled data from current BizBuySell listings and sold businesses to provide insight into the business for sale market and important benchmarks for pricing and evaluating pharmacies relative to industry standards.

Jump To:

Highlights of Pharmacy Businesses Sold on BizBuySell

Pharmacies listed and sold on BizBuySell are primarily locally owned and operated retail businesses that offer prescription fills, guidance on dosage, side effects, and proper use. Pharmacists also provide essential patient education on prescription and over-the-counter treatments. Many pharmacies offer expanded health and wellness services, including vaccinations, screenings, diabetes management, and wellness consultations. These businesses often include sections for general consumer goods such as snacks and cosmetics, further enhancing their profitability and value to the community.

Pharmacy Business Transaction Trends

The median sale price of pharmacy businesses spiked in 2020, as revenues and forecasts grew in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. Prices fell to previous levels in 2021, and have been growing in the years since, with 2023 and 2024 both above pre-pandemic levels.

Pharmacy Business Valuation Multiples

Valuation, or pricing, multiples are financial tools that allow for comparisons between businesses that have different levels of revenue and earnings. They represent the sales price of a business relative to its financial performance, and given enough individual business sales data, they represent what the market is willing to pay for a business given its revenue and earnings.

Valuation Trends

Business values and associated multiples fluctuate over time, influenced by a variety of macroeconomic factors such as interest rates, inflation, consumer spending, and overall economic growth.

Average valuation multiples of pharmacy businesses sold have been fairly consistent, moving along with the broader market. While interest rate hikes have put pressure on business valuations, pharmacies have seen valuation increase in 2022-2024, signaling above average demand in this area.

Earnings Multiples

Earnings multiples represent the value of a business relative to its owner’s discretionary earnings or "cash flow". Arguably the most important valuation metric - as the seller's discretionary earnings will often dictate how much a buyer is able to borrow to finance the business acquisition - most valuations will hinge on a reasonable earnings multiple.

Revenue Multiples

Revenue multiples represent the value of a business relative to its overall sales or revenue. In conjunction with an earnings analysis, revenue multiples are commonly used to value a business based on its overall sales.

How to Interpret These Multiples

Recent Listings vs. Sold Businesses

We calculate and provide valuation multiples from two sources: Current and recent listings of pharmacy businesses for sale, and our database of "comparable" businesses sold on BizBuySell. Multiples based on listing data are generally higher due to owners setting asking prices above what their businesses might typically sell for. This occurs either intentionally as a negotiation strategy, or incidentally due to business owners’ common tendency to overvalue their own businesses.

Multiples based on comparable businesses - "comps" in business broker parlance - are much more useful as they represent the prices at which businesses ultimately get sold. Business brokers and valuation professionals will always turn to local comps when pricing businesses for sale or evaluating businesses for acquisition. We provide both sets of data at the national level to offer general context.

Quartiles, Median, and Average

No two businesses are identical, and as such, valuation multiples exist in a range. We have carved out four common values within this range: Lower quartile represents the value under which the lowest 25% of valuation multiples fell. Upper quartile represents the value above which the highest 25% of multiples fell. Median is the middle of the range, and average is the mean of the set. Mean is almost always higher than the median, driven by a minority of high volume, high value businesses sold at multiples above the upper quartile.

Businesses with consistent financial performance, above average revenue and earnings, demonstrable growth potential, low owner involvement, unique competitive advantages, and a seller willing to finance will command a multiple at or above the upper quartile. Lower volume businesses with thin profit margins, full-time owner involvement, and many direct competitors will trade at or below the lower quartile. Most businesses will fall somewhere in the middle.

Based on this data, half of pharmacy businesses are valued between 1.66 and 3.18 times their annual seller discretionary earnings, with 25% of exceptional, larger pharmacies trading above this range, and 25% of the smaller, less desirable businesses trading below.

Financial Benchmarks

To determine how a business compares in terms of revenue and earnings relative to industry peers, it’s necessary to have some insight into industry standards. "Benchmarking" describes the practice of comparing a business’s financial performance to typical industry standards to determine where a business falls relative to other businesses in the same industry. These benchmarks can help guide owners and investors towards appropriate valuation multiples from the range above.

To that end, we have aggregated financial ranges useful for comparing an individual pharmacy business to its peers in the market.

Pharmacy Business Revenue and Earnings Trends

Pharmacies listed and sold saw peak revenues in 2020, driven by pandemic related demand. In the years following, we have seen revenues return, with significant growth in 2022 and 2023, likely buoyed by inflation and at the expense of profit margins. 2024 saw some reduction in revenue and a return to healthier profit margins.

Earnings Ranges

Discretionary earnings (used interchangeably with the terms "cash flow" and seller's discretionary earnings or SDE) is often the crux of business valuations, so it is important to benchmark it relative to other businesses traded on the market. Below you will find discretionary earnings ranges of pharmacy businesses sold over the past five years, as well as recent for sale listings.

Revenue Ranges

Sales volume plays a large role in business valuation, as it measures the size of the potential income opportunity for new ownership. It's not uncommon for buyers to select an earnings multiple range based on overall revenue. The table below includes revenue ranges of pharmacy businesses sold over the past five years, as well as recent for sale listings.

How Revenue and Earnings Level Affects Business Values

Clearly higher levels of earnings lead to higher valuations, even given the same multiple. However, valuation multiples also tend to rise with business sales volume. Popular pharmacies that generate higher sales (and maintain reasonable profit margins) tend to sell for earnings multiples on the higher end. So, a pharmacy consistently generating sales over $2MM annually may sell for an earnings multiple above 3, where a smaller store with sales under $500k would likely sell for an earnings multiple closer to 1.7 or less.

This tendency for higher sales volumes to fetch higher valuation multiples is largely driven by the economics of business acquisition financing. Higher volume businesses give buyers more cushion to cover debt service obligations and still have enough left over to pay the new owner a reasonable income.

Sector Comparisons

For a more complete understanding of the market and valuation standards, consider comparisons within the broader retail sector when benchmarking pharmacy businesses. The chart and table below includes key metrics from sales of select retail businesses on BizBuySell between 2020 and 2024.

With few exceptions, all retail businesses tend to fall on the same trend line of sales to earnings multiple. Other factors like real estate requirements, licensing and regulations, and staffing levels affect relative values, but sales volume is the primary lever of valuations. Pharmacies, while generating above average sales, also have some unique licensing and regulatory requirements, as well as medical staff needs, which make the business model a little more complicated, but also add to the barriers to entry.

More Resources and Tools from BizBuySell

Thinking of buying or selling a business? BizBuySell has the tools, resources, and professionals you need to get down to business.