Cardinal Health (NYSE:CAH) Coverage Initiated at StockNews.com

StockNews.com began coverage on shares of Cardinal Health (NYSE:CAH – Get Rating) in a research note published on Thursday morning. The brokerage issued a strong-buy rating on the stock.

A number of other equities analysts have also issued reports on the company. UBS Group increased their price target on Cardinal Health from $78.00 to $91.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 31st. Robert W. Baird raised Cardinal Health from a neutral rating to an outperform rating and increased their price target for the company from $87.00 to $94.00 in a research note on Friday, February 3rd. Credit Suisse Group increased their price target on Cardinal Health from $89.00 to $92.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a research note on Friday, February 3rd. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased their price target on Cardinal Health from $86.00 to $90.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a research note on Friday, February 3rd. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, four have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $80.64.

Cardinal Health Price Performance

Shares of CAH stock opened at $69.82 on Thursday. Cardinal Health has a 12-month low of $49.70 and a 12-month high of $81.57. The firm has a market capitalization of $17.99 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.81, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.14 and a beta of 0.76. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $76.49 and a 200 day simple moving average of $74.91.

Cardinal Health (NYSE:CAH – Get Rating) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 2nd. The company reported $1.32 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.13 by $0.19. The firm had revenue of $51.47 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $50.03 billion. Cardinal Health had a negative return on equity of 101.28% and a negative net margin of 0.66%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 13.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.27 EPS. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Cardinal Health will post 5.42 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Cardinal Health Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Saturday, April 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, April 3rd will be given a dividend of $0.4957 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 31st. This represents a $1.98 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.84%. Cardinal Health’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 36.33%.

Institutional Trading of Cardinal Health

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Cardinal Health by 19.9% in the fourth quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 770 shares of the company’s stock valued at $59,000 after purchasing an additional 128 shares in the last quarter. Profund Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Cardinal Health by 3.3% in the fourth quarter. Profund Advisors LLC now owns 4,190 shares of the company’s stock valued at $322,000 after purchasing an additional 132 shares in the last quarter. Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Cardinal Health by 29.5% in the third quarter. Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC now owns 589 shares of the company’s stock valued at $39,000 after purchasing an additional 134 shares in the last quarter. Foster Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Cardinal Health by 3.1% in the fourth quarter. Foster Group Inc. now owns 4,626 shares of the company’s stock valued at $356,000 after purchasing an additional 140 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Mirador Capital Partners LP lifted its holdings in shares of Cardinal Health by 1.5% in the fourth quarter. Mirador Capital Partners LP now owns 9,525 shares of the company’s stock valued at $732,000 after purchasing an additional 140 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 88.93% of the company’s stock.

About Cardinal Health

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Cardinal Health, Inc is a healthcare services and products company, which engages in the provision of customized solutions for hospitals, healthcare systems, pharmacies, ambulatory surgery centers, clinical laboratories, and physician offices. It also provides medical products and pharmaceuticals and cost-effective solutions that enhance supply chain efficiency.