Cardinal Health (NYSE:CAH) Sets New 12-Month High – Still a Buy?

Cardinal Health, Inc. (NYSE:CAH) shares hit a new 52-week high during mid-day trading on Tuesday . The company traded as high as $131.00 and last traded at $130.65, with a volume of 2191047 shares traded. The stock had previously closed at $128.83.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Mizuho assumed coverage on Cardinal Health in a report on Wednesday, December 4th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $139.00 target price for the company. Bank of America raised Cardinal Health from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price target for the company from $132.00 to $145.00 in a report on Monday, January 6th. Barclays raised their price target on Cardinal Health from $117.00 to $133.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, November 4th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on Cardinal Health from $132.00 to $142.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday. Finally, UBS Group raised their price target on Cardinal Health from $134.00 to $139.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, November 4th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $134.64.

Cardinal Health Trading Up 1.4 %

The stock has a market cap of $31.62 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.42, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.57 and a beta of 0.63. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $121.57 and its 200 day simple moving average is $113.42.

Cardinal Health (NYSE:CAH) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Friday, November 1st. The company reported $1.88 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.62 by $0.26. Cardinal Health had a negative return on equity of 56.56% and a net margin of 0.56%. The business had revenue of $52.28 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $50.90 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.73 EPS. The firm’s revenue was down 4.3% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Cardinal Health, Inc. will post 7.82 earnings per share for the current year.

Cardinal Health Cuts Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, January 2nd were given a dividend of $0.5056 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, January 2nd. This represents a $2.02 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.55%. Cardinal Health’s dividend payout ratio is 39.30%.

Institutional Trading of Cardinal Health

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. CHURCHILL MANAGEMENT Corp grew its stake in Cardinal Health by 1.5% in the fourth quarter. CHURCHILL MANAGEMENT Corp now owns 240,422 shares of the company’s stock valued at $28,435,000 after acquiring an additional 3,576 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Cardinal Health by 0.7% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 5,749,859 shares of the company’s stock worth $633,298,000 after buying an additional 42,082 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its position in Cardinal Health by 2.3% during the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,474,625 shares of the company’s stock worth $162,976,000 after acquiring an additional 33,388 shares during the last quarter. Alpha Cubed Investments LLC bought a new position in shares of Cardinal Health during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $371,000. Finally, Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund acquired a new stake in shares of Cardinal Health in the third quarter valued at approximately $1,691,000. Institutional investors own 87.17% of the company’s stock.

Cardinal Health Company Profile

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.