OMCL vs WAY: Which Is the Better Buy in 2026?

Same yardstick, side by side (as of August 2026). Valuation lined up like this is most meaningful for two names in the same corner of the market, which these are. Figures are approximate; verify before investing.

Reading it: WAY is the cheaper of the two on forward earnings, but cheaper is not the same as better. Pair the valuation with growth (how far the forward P/E sits below the trailing P/E) and risk (beta) before you decide.

The metrics above tell you which is the marginally better business. The bigger risk for most people is not picking the slightly worse stock, it is over-concentrating. OMCL and WAY share themes, so owning both, or adding either to what you already hold, can quietly push a large share of your portfolio into one bet.

This is the part a generic comparison page cannot answer, because it depends on what you own. Connect your brokerage and Walnut shows your real, combined OMCL and WAY exposure, flags overlap with your existing positions, and tells you if adding one would tip you past a concentration you are comfortable with, read-only by default, with your login staying at your broker. Walnut is not an investment adviser.

Omnicell, Inc. (NASDAQ: OMCL) is a healthcare-technology company that builds medication-management and pharmacy-automation systems for hospitals, health systems, retail and specialty pharmacies, and other care settings. Its core products include automated dispensing cabinets (the XT and XR series), central-pharmacy robotics, IV compounding automation, and a growing layer of cloud software and services branded around what the company calls the Autonomous Pharmacy. Omnicell earns money from product sales (the hardware and installed systems) and from a rising base of recurring service and subscription revenue, including its Advanced Services and technician-enabled offerings, and it tracks annual recurring revenue (ARR) and product bookings as key operating metrics.

Full OMCL guide

Waystar Holding (Nasdaq: WAY) sells cloud-based software that healthcare providers use to get paid: financial clearance and eligibility, claims and payer-payment management, denials prevention and recovery, patient payments, and analytics. Its platform sits between roughly a million providers and the payers that reimburse them, processing billions of transactions a year, and the company leans heavily on automation and AI to reduce the manual work in medical billing. Provider-side solutions make up the large majority of revenue and carry high margins, with patient-payment tools rounding out the mix.

Full WAY guide

Both fit overlapping themes, but they are not interchangeable. The useful comparison is which set of drivers and risks you want exposure to.

• OMCL drivers: Shift toward recurring software and services; Large installed base and replacement cycle.
• WAY drivers: AI-driven revenue cycle automation; Land-and-expand with high retention.

A faster-growing, richer-valued name usually swings harder, so it suits a longer horizon and a higher tolerance for volatility; a steadier, more cash-generative business suits a more conservative or income-minded investor. The honest test is which set of risks you could hold through a drawdown: Omnicell's product revenue depends heavily on hospital and health-system capital budgets, which are cyclical and can be cut quickly when providers face financial pressure, making bookings and revenue lumpy. For WAY, concentration and competition are real: Optum (UnitedHealth) can bundle RCM with payer services and undercut on price, while R1 RCM, Availity, and Experian Health all compete for overlapping share.

Growth-minded investors who believe the theme has years to run tend to accept the richer multiple for more upside; value-minded investors lean toward the cheaper forward earnings and steadier profile. Pick OMCL if you believe its drivers more; WAY if you believe its. Many investors hold both, but since they share themes, that is a concentrated bet, not diversification. Decide deliberately and check overlap. For the full detail, see the OMCL and WAY guides.

OMCL. Omnicell trades around $43 per share for a market capitalization near $1.96 billion as of July 2026, with a wide 52-week range that reflects how sensitive the stock is to bookings and margin trends. The trailing GAAP P/E has been very high (around 97) because GAAP earnings have been depressed, while normalized or forward multiples on non-GAAP EPS are far lower (Morningstar cited a normalized P/E near 22). That gap between GAAP and non-GAAP earnings is central to how different investors value the name.

WAY. Waystar was trading around $24 in early July 2026, well below its 52-week high, with about 192 million shares outstanding. Q1 2026 revenue rose ~22% year over year to ~$314 million (roughly 11% organic) with net revenue retention near 111%. The mid-30s P/E and a market cap several times trailing revenue reflect expectations for continued double-digit growth and margin expansion rather than a cheap-value setup.

Headline figures (approximate, JULY 2026): OMCL shows revenue (fy2025) ~$1.185 billion (up ~7%), non-gaap ebitda (fy2025) ~$140 million, revenue (q1 2026) ~$310 million (up ~15% YoY), non-gaap eps (q1 2026) ~$0.55 (vs ~$0.26 a year earlier); WAY shows revenue (ttm) ~$1.16B, market cap ~$4.6B, net income (ttm) ~$126M, p/e ratio ~35x.

OMCL and WAY are related but distinct: same themes, different businesses and risks. Neither wins in the abstract; the right pick is whichever thesis you actually believe, sized so you are not over-concentrated in one theme. Walnut can show your combined OMCL and WAY exposure against your real portfolio. It is not an investment adviser.