Cardinal Health (NYSE:CAH) Hits New 12-Month High After Analyst Upgrade

Shares of Cardinal Health, Inc. (NYSE:CAH) hit a new 52-week high during trading on Monday after Leerink Partners raised their price target on the stock from $268.00 to $275.00. Leerink Partners currently has an outperform rating on the stock. Cardinal Health traded as high as $232.97 and last traded at $232.1990, with a volume of 201881 shares trading hands. The stock had previously closed at $229.23.

A number of other brokerages have also recently issued reports on CAH. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their price objective on shares of Cardinal Health from $195.00 to $208.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 18th. Jefferies Financial Group lifted their price target on shares of Cardinal Health from $220.00 to $270.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 22nd. UBS Group set a $260.00 price target on shares of Cardinal Health and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 6th. Barclays raised their price objective on Cardinal Health from $243.00 to $258.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 24th. Finally, Morgan Stanley set a $255.00 target price on Cardinal Health in a report on Friday, February 6th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have given a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $245.67.

Institutional Trading of Cardinal Health

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. SJS Investment Consulting Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Cardinal Health by 1,363.6% during the third quarter. SJS Investment Consulting Inc. now owns 161 shares of the company’s stock worth $25,000 after buying an additional 150 shares in the last quarter. Aventura Private Wealth LLC acquired a new position in Cardinal Health during the 4th quarter worth approximately $25,000. University of Texas Texas AM Investment Management Co. bought a new position in shares of Cardinal Health during the 4th quarter worth approximately $26,000. Bank of Jackson Hole Trust bought a new position in shares of Cardinal Health during the 4th quarter worth approximately $27,000. Finally, Jones Financial Companies Lllp raised its holdings in shares of Cardinal Health by 198.3% in the first quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 21,112 shares of the company’s stock valued at $27,000 after purchasing an additional 14,034 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 87.17% of the company’s stock.

Cardinal Health Price Performance

The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $214.97 and its 200 day moving average price is $188.60. The firm has a market cap of $53.29 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.58, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.48 and a beta of 0.65.

Cardinal Health (NYSE:CAH) last released its earnings results 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 business had revenue of $65.63 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $64.88 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $1.93 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 18.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts forecast that Cardinal Health, Inc. will post 7.95 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Cardinal Health Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 15th. Investors of record on Wednesday, April 1st will be given a $0.5107 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, April 1st. This represents a $2.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.9%. Cardinal Health’s payout ratio is currently 29.35%.

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.