Cardinal Health, Inc. (NYSE:CAH) Given Average Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by Analysts

Cardinal Health, Inc. (NYSE:CAH) has been given an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by the fourteen research firms that are covering the firm, Marketbeat reports. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have given a buy rating to the company. The average 1-year price objective among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $157.43.

CAH has been the topic of several research reports. Robert W. Baird upped their price objective on shares of Cardinal Health from $156.00 to $170.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, May 2nd. Bank of America upped their price objective on shares of Cardinal Health from $165.00 to $170.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, June 10th. Mizuho upped their price objective on shares of Cardinal Health from $142.00 to $150.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, March 31st. UBS Group upped their price objective on shares of Cardinal Health from $150.00 to $160.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 29th. Finally, Morgan Stanley set a $181.00 price objective on shares of Cardinal Health and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, June 13th.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Cardinal Health

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of Cardinal Health by 1.9% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 5,859,132 shares of the company’s stock valued at $691,145,000 after acquiring an additional 109,273 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its position in shares of Cardinal Health by 40.0% during the 1st quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 4,175,992 shares of the company’s stock valued at $575,327,000 after acquiring an additional 1,193,983 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. grew its position in shares of Cardinal Health by 4.6% during the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 3,182,514 shares of the company’s stock valued at $376,396,000 after acquiring an additional 140,368 shares during the period. Marshall Wace LLP grew its position in shares of Cardinal Health by 154.6% during the 4th quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 3,151,736 shares of the company’s stock valued at $372,756,000 after acquiring an additional 1,913,892 shares during the period. Finally, Northern Trust Corp grew its position in shares of Cardinal Health by 3.5% during the 1st quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 3,143,003 shares of the company’s stock valued at $433,012,000 after acquiring an additional 105,154 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 87.17% of the company’s stock.

Cardinal Health Stock Down 0.4%

CAH stock opened at $161.06 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $38.44 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.13, a PEG ratio of 1.60 and a beta of 0.68. Cardinal Health has a 12-month low of $93.99 and a 12-month high of $168.44. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $158.06 and its 200 day simple moving average is $139.47.

Cardinal Health (NYSE:CAH) last released its earnings results on Thursday, May 1st. The company reported $2.35 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.15 by $0.20. The business had revenue of $54.88 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $55.33 billion. Cardinal Health had a net margin of 0.70% and a negative return on equity of 68.84%. Cardinal Health’s revenue for the quarter was up .0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $2.08 earnings per share. Research analysts expect that Cardinal Health will post 7.95 earnings per share for the current year.

Cardinal Health Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, July 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, July 1st were paid a $0.5107 dividend. This is a positive change from Cardinal Health’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.51. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, July 1st. This represents a $2.04 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.27%. Cardinal Health’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 31.83%.

About Cardinal Health

Cardinal Health, Inc operates as a healthcare services and products company in the United States, Canada, Europe, Asia, and internationally. It provides customized solutions for hospitals, healthcare systems, pharmacies, ambulatory surgery centers, clinical laboratories, physician offices, and patients in the home.