Traders Buy High Volume of Call Options on Cardinal Health (NYSE:CAH)

Cardinal Health, Inc. (NYSE:CAH) was the recipient of some unusual options trading on Wednesday. Traders bought 27,965 call options on the stock. This is an increase of approximately 808% compared to the typical daily volume of 3,081 call options.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Cardinal Health

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of CAH. Latitude Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Cardinal Health by 2.1% in the third quarter. Latitude Advisors LLC now owns 2,598 shares of the company’s stock valued at $408,000 after acquiring an additional 53 shares in the last quarter. MFA Wealth Services lifted its position in Cardinal Health by 2.3% in the third quarter. MFA Wealth Services now owns 2,491 shares of the company’s stock valued at $391,000 after purchasing an additional 55 shares during the period. Vertex Planning Partners LLC boosted its holdings in Cardinal Health by 3.7% in the 3rd quarter. Vertex Planning Partners LLC now owns 1,702 shares of the company’s stock valued at $267,000 after purchasing an additional 60 shares in the last quarter. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB increased its position in Cardinal Health by 3.6% during the 2nd quarter. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB now owns 1,767 shares of the company’s stock worth $297,000 after purchasing an additional 62 shares during the period. Finally, WESPAC Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Cardinal Health by 1.0% during the 3rd quarter. WESPAC Advisors LLC now owns 6,644 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,043,000 after buying an additional 63 shares in the last quarter. 87.17% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Cardinal Health in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Mizuho boosted their target price on Cardinal Health from $170.00 to $210.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, November 3rd. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on Cardinal Health from $185.00 to $221.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 5th. Jefferies Financial Group set a $220.00 price objective on shares of Cardinal Health and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, November 3rd. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Cardinal Health from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Saturday, November 8th. Thirteen research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Cardinal Health presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $209.00.

Cardinal Health Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:CAH opened at $205.62 on Friday. Cardinal Health has a one year low of $117.53 and a one year high of $214.93. The stock has a market capitalization of $48.85 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.01, a PEG ratio of 1.50 and a beta of 0.63. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $200.11 and a 200-day simple moving average of $171.40.

Cardinal Health (NYSE:CAH) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 30th. The company reported $2.55 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.22 by $0.33. The firm had revenue of $64.01 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $59.41 billion. Cardinal Health had a negative return on equity of 84.37% and a net margin of 0.68%.The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 22.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.88 EPS. Cardinal Health has set its FY 2026 guidance at 9.650-9.850 EPS. As a group, research analysts forecast that Cardinal Health will post 7.95 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Cardinal Health Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, January 15th. Investors of record on Friday, January 2nd will be issued a dividend of $0.5107 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 2nd. This represents a $2.04 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.0%. Cardinal Health’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 30.77%.

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.