Cardinal Health (NYSE:CAH) Hits New 12-Month High – Should You Buy?

Cardinal Health, Inc. (NYSE:CAH) hit a new 52-week high during mid-day trading on Wednesday . The stock traded as high as $234.86 and last traded at $234.8680, with a volume of 515769 shares. The stock had previously closed at $228.91.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

CAH has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. TD Cowen lifted their target price on Cardinal Health from $251.00 to $255.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, May 1st. Zacks Research lowered Cardinal Health from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, June 12th. Evercore cut their price objective on shares of Cardinal Health from $260.00 to $240.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 8th. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price objective on shares of Cardinal Health from $256.00 to $245.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, May 1st. Finally, Leerink Partners reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $275.00 target price on shares of Cardinal Health in a research report on Monday, March 9th. Fourteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $246.93.

Cardinal Health Stock Performance

The stock has a market capitalization of $54.97 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.87, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.22 and a beta of 0.52. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $204.76 and a 200-day simple moving average of $209.61.

Cardinal Health (NYSE:CAH) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 30th. The company reported $3.17 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.79 by $0.38. Cardinal Health had a negative return on equity of 92.61% and a net margin of 0.62%.The company had revenue of $60.94 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $62.10 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $2.35 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 11.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Cardinal Health has set its FY 2026 guidance at 10.700-10.80 EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that Cardinal Health, Inc. will post 10.76 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Cardinal Health Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 15th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, July 1st will be given a dividend of $0.5158 per share. This is a positive change from Cardinal Health’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.51. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, July 1st. This represents a $2.06 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.9%. Cardinal Health’s payout ratio is 31.19%.

Institutional Trading of Cardinal Health

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in CAH. Sapient Capital LLC acquired a new position in Cardinal Health in the first quarter worth approximately $534,000. Pacer Advisors Inc. lifted its position in shares of Cardinal Health by 14.7% during the 1st quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 1,565,131 shares of the company’s stock valued at $330,728,000 after acquiring an additional 200,021 shares during the last quarter. Farmers National Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Cardinal Health during the 1st quarter valued at $233,000. DV Trading LLC boosted its stake in shares of Cardinal Health by 162.0% during the 1st quarter. DV Trading LLC now owns 1,048 shares of the company’s stock worth $221,000 after acquiring an additional 648 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Parallel Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Cardinal Health by 9.0% during the 1st quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 2,968 shares of the company’s stock worth $627,000 after acquiring an additional 244 shares in the last quarter. 87.17% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

About Cardinal Health

Cardinal Health is a multinational healthcare services and products company headquartered in Dublin, Ohio. Tracing its roots to the early 1970s, the company has grown into a major provider of supply chain and distribution services for the healthcare sector. Cardinal Health operates across a range of service lines that support hospitals, health systems, pharmacies, physician offices and clinical laboratories.

The company’s core activities include the wholesale distribution of branded and generic pharmaceuticals, the supply and distribution of medical-surgical products, and the provision of logistics and inventory management solutions.