Cardinal Health (NYSE:CAH) Sets New 1-Year High – Should You Buy?

Cardinal Health, Inc. (NYSE:CAH) reached a new 52-week high during trading on Thursday . The stock traded as high as $126.24 and last traded at $126.02, with a volume of 399121 shares trading hands. The stock had previously closed at $124.71.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on CAH. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on Cardinal Health from $127.00 to $136.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th. StockNews.com lowered Cardinal Health from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Sunday, November 3rd. Evercore ISI upgraded Cardinal Health from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $140.00 target price for the company in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Bank of America upgraded Cardinal Health from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $132.00 to $145.00 in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Finally, Barclays upped their price objective on Cardinal Health from $117.00 to $133.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, November 4th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $133.29.

Cardinal Health Stock Down 0.6 %

The company has a market capitalization of $30.56 billion, a PE ratio of 24.57, a PEG ratio of 1.48 and a beta of 0.63. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $120.75 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $111.81.

Cardinal Health (NYSE:CAH) last posted its earnings results on Friday, November 1st. The company reported $1.88 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 during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $50.90 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.73 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was down 4.3% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Cardinal Health, Inc. will post 7.82 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Cardinal Health Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, January 2nd were given a dividend of $0.5056 per share. This represents a $2.02 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.60%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, January 2nd. Cardinal Health’s payout ratio is 39.30%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Cardinal Health

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Verde Capital Management bought a new stake in Cardinal Health during the fourth quarter worth about $220,000. Raleigh Capital Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Cardinal Health by 29.6% in the 4th quarter. Raleigh Capital Management Inc. now owns 464 shares of the company’s stock valued at $55,000 after acquiring an additional 106 shares during the last quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC lifted its stake in shares of Cardinal Health by 5.0% in the 4th quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC now owns 251,025 shares of the company’s stock valued at $29,689,000 after acquiring an additional 11,923 shares during the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC lifted its stake in shares of Cardinal Health by 677.2% in the 4th quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 137,312 shares of the company’s stock valued at $16,240,000 after acquiring an additional 119,645 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH lifted its stake in shares of Cardinal Health by 10.5% in the 4th quarter. Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH now owns 11,883 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,405,000 after acquiring an additional 1,132 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 87.17% of the company’s stock.

About Cardinal Health

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.