Swiss National Bank Decreases Stock Holdings in Cardinal Health, Inc. $CAH

Swiss National Bank trimmed its holdings in shares of Cardinal Health, Inc. (NYSE:CAH) by 5.9% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 688,000 shares of the company’s stock after selling 43,200 shares during the period. Swiss National Bank’s holdings in Cardinal Health were worth $107,988,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Cardinal Health during the second quarter valued at approximately $584,420,000. Barclays PLC raised its stake in Cardinal Health by 109.3% during the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 1,584,214 shares of the company’s stock valued at $248,658,000 after purchasing an additional 827,446 shares during the period. Prudential Financial Inc. boosted its position in shares of Cardinal Health by 476.8% in the second quarter. Prudential Financial Inc. now owns 883,348 shares of the company’s stock worth $148,402,000 after buying an additional 730,209 shares during the period. Victory Capital Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Cardinal Health by 44.9% during the third quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 2,284,115 shares of the company’s stock valued at $352,165,000 after buying an additional 707,495 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Voya Investment Management LLC raised its position in Cardinal Health by 298.3% during the third quarter. Voya Investment Management LLC now owns 821,723 shares of the company’s stock valued at $128,978,000 after buying an additional 615,398 shares during the period. 87.17% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Cardinal Health Trading Down 2.4%

CAH stock opened at $216.91 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $51.04 billion, a PE ratio of 31.21, a PEG ratio of 1.43 and a beta of 0.65. Cardinal Health, Inc. has a 1 year low of $120.72 and a 1 year high of $233.60. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $216.14 and a 200 day simple moving average of $191.03.

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

Cardinal Health Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 15th. Stockholders 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 dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 29.35%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have weighed in on CAH. UBS Group set a $260.00 target price on Cardinal Health and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 6th. Barclays upped their price objective on shares of Cardinal Health from $243.00 to $258.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 24th. Citigroup upgraded shares of Cardinal Health from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $190.00 to $244.00 in a report on Friday, January 9th. TD Cowen increased their price objective on Cardinal Health from $233.00 to $251.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 11th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group lifted their price objective on Cardinal Health from $220.00 to $270.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 22nd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have given a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $245.67.

Cardinal Health 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.