Vanguard Group Inc. Acquires 617,775 Shares of Cardinal Health, Inc. $CAH

Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Cardinal Health, Inc. (NYSE:CAH) by 2.0% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 31,441,258 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 617,775 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. owned approximately 0.13% of Cardinal Health worth $6,461,179,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Impax Asset Management Group plc grew its holdings in shares of Cardinal Health by 0.5% during the fourth quarter. Impax Asset Management Group plc now owns 40,681 shares of the company’s stock worth $8,360,000 after purchasing an additional 201 shares in the last quarter. Concurrent Investment Advisors LLC raised its stake in Cardinal Health by 23.7% in the fourth quarter. Concurrent Investment Advisors LLC now owns 10,320 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,121,000 after purchasing an additional 1,975 shares in the last quarter. TBH Global Asset Management LLC bought a new stake in Cardinal Health during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $262,000. WPG Advisers LLC lifted its position in Cardinal Health by 207.1% during the fourth quarter. WPG Advisers LLC now owns 740 shares of the company’s stock valued at $152,000 after purchasing an additional 499 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Turtle Creek Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Cardinal Health in the 4th quarter worth approximately $267,000. 87.17% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

CAH has been the topic of several research reports. Argus raised their price objective on shares of Cardinal Health from $232.00 to $248.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 11th. Barclays upped their target price on shares of Cardinal Health from $243.00 to $258.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 24th. Robert W. Baird set a $252.00 target price on Cardinal Health in a research note on Friday, February 6th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on Cardinal Health from $209.00 to $243.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 10th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group lifted their price target on Cardinal Health from $220.00 to $270.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 22nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have issued a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $244.33.

Cardinal Health Stock Performance

Shares of Cardinal Health stock opened at $199.74 on Monday. Cardinal Health, Inc. has a 52-week low of $134.76 and a 52-week high of $233.60. The stock has a market capitalization of $47.00 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.74, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.29 and a beta of 0.64. The company has a fifty day moving average of $215.53 and a 200-day moving average of $204.90.

Cardinal Health (NYSE:CAH) last released its earnings results on Thursday, February 5th. The company reported $2.63 EPS 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 net margin of 0.68% and a negative return on equity of 92.50%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 18.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $1.93 EPS. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Cardinal Health, Inc. will post 10.32 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Cardinal Health Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, April 15th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, April 1st were paid a dividend of $0.5107 per share. This represents a $2.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, April 1st. Cardinal Health’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 29.35%.

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.