Wall Street Zen Downgrades Cardinal Health (NYSE:CAH) to Buy

Cardinal Health (NYSE:CAH) was downgraded by equities research analysts at Wall Street Zen from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note issued on Saturday.

Other analysts also recently issued reports about the company. Evercore lifted their price target on Cardinal Health from $250.00 to $260.00 in a research note on Friday, February 6th. Barclays initiated coverage on shares of Cardinal Health in a report on Monday, December 8th. They set an “overweight” rating and a $243.00 target price for the company. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on shares of Cardinal Health from $237.00 to $256.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 10th. UBS Group set a $260.00 price objective on Cardinal Health and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 6th. Finally, Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Cardinal Health in a report on Wednesday, January 21st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have issued a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Cardinal Health presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $244.20.

Cardinal Health Price Performance

Cardinal Health stock opened at $224.22 on Friday. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $211.38 and a 200-day simple moving average of $184.51. Cardinal Health has a 12 month low of $120.72 and a 12 month high of $230.81. The stock has a market capitalization of $52.76 billion, a PE ratio of 32.26, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.44 and a beta of 0.64.

Cardinal Health (NYSE:CAH) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 5th. The company reported $2.63 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.31 by $0.32. Cardinal Health had a net margin of 0.68% and a negative return on equity of 92.50%. The firm had revenue of $65.63 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $64.88 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.93 EPS. Cardinal Health’s quarterly revenue was up 18.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Cardinal Health will post 7.95 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Cardinal Health by 2.0% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 31,441,258 shares of the company’s stock worth $6,461,179,000 after buying an additional 617,775 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its stake in shares of Cardinal Health by 1.8% in the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 12,509,230 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,570,647,000 after buying an additional 221,497 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of Cardinal Health by 0.7% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 6,529,013 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,336,750,000 after purchasing an additional 43,924 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its stake in shares of Cardinal Health by 153.2% in the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 5,804,090 shares of the company’s stock valued at $911,010,000 after purchasing an additional 3,511,579 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Cardinal Health during the fourth quarter worth about $790,344,000. 87.17% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Cardinal Health Company Profile

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.