Cardinal Health (NYSE:CAH) Downgraded by Wall Street Zen to “Buy”

Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Cardinal Health (NYSE:CAH) from a strong-buy rating to a buy rating in a report issued on Saturday.

A number of other equities analysts also recently commented on the stock. Evercore raised their target price on shares of Cardinal Health from $250.00 to $260.00 in a research note on Friday, February 6th. Mizuho increased their price target on Cardinal Health from $222.00 to $235.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, February 6th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on Cardinal Health from $209.00 to $243.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 10th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their target price on Cardinal Health from $195.00 to $208.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 18th. Finally, Zacks Research upgraded Cardinal Health from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, February 12th. One equities 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. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $244.20.

Cardinal Health Price Performance

NYSE CAH opened at $224.22 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $52.76 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.26, a P/E/G ratio of 1.45 and a beta of 0.64. Cardinal Health has a 1-year low of $120.72 and a 1-year high of $230.81. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $211.38 and its 200-day simple moving average is $184.69.

Cardinal Health (NYSE:CAH) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, February 5th. The company reported $2.63 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.31 by $0.32. The firm had revenue of $65.63 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $64.88 billion. Cardinal Health had a net margin of 0.68% and a negative return on equity of 92.50%. The company’s revenue was up 18.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.93 EPS. On average, equities research analysts expect that Cardinal Health will post 7.95 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Cardinal Health Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 15th. Investors of record on Wednesday, April 1st will be issued 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 yield of 0.9%. Cardinal Health’s dividend payout ratio is currently 29.35%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Cardinal Health

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in CAH. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Cardinal Health by 2.0% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 31,441,258 shares of the company’s stock worth $6,461,179,000 after buying an additional 617,775 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its holdings in Cardinal Health by 1.8% during the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 12,509,230 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,570,647,000 after acquiring an additional 221,497 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in Cardinal Health by 0.7% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 6,529,013 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,336,750,000 after acquiring an additional 43,924 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its position in shares of Cardinal Health by 153.2% in the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 5,804,090 shares of the company’s stock worth $911,010,000 after purchasing an additional 3,511,579 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Cardinal Health in the 4th quarter valued at about $790,344,000. 87.17% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.