Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado Reduces Stake in Cardinal Health, Inc. (NYSE:CAH)

Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado reduced its position in Cardinal Health, Inc. (NYSE:CAH) by 7.1% in the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 26,596 shares of the company’s stock after selling 2,021 shares during the period. Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado’s holdings in Cardinal Health were worth $2,976,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Mather Group LLC. increased its stake in Cardinal Health by 2.5% in the 4th quarter. Mather Group LLC. now owns 6,678 shares of the company’s stock valued at $673,000 after purchasing an additional 164 shares in the last quarter. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. increased its position in Cardinal Health by 86.8% during the fourth quarter. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. now owns 69,423 shares of the company’s stock worth $6,998,000 after buying an additional 32,250 shares in the last quarter. Pinebridge Investments L.P. increased its position in Cardinal Health by 237.7% during the fourth quarter. Pinebridge Investments L.P. now owns 171,530 shares of the company’s stock worth $17,290,000 after buying an additional 120,740 shares in the last quarter. Tobam increased its position in Cardinal Health by 773.4% during the first quarter. Tobam now owns 49,111 shares of the company’s stock worth $5,496,000 after buying an additional 43,488 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Nomura Holdings Inc. increased its position in Cardinal Health by 12.3% during the fourth quarter. Nomura Holdings Inc. now owns 220,661 shares of the company’s stock worth $22,243,000 after buying an additional 24,222 shares in the last quarter. 87.17% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

CAH has been the subject of several recent research reports. StockNews.com raised Cardinal Health from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, July 22nd. Evercore ISI decreased their price objective on Cardinal Health from $115.00 to $105.00 and set an “in-line” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, July 9th. Argus decreased their price objective on Cardinal Health from $120.00 to $115.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, May 15th. Robert W. Baird raised their price objective on Cardinal Health from $129.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 9th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price objective on Cardinal Health from $96.00 to $94.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, April 29th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $109.67.

Cardinal Health Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE CAH opened at $98.18 on Tuesday. Cardinal Health, Inc. has a 1 year low of $85.11 and a 1 year high of $116.04. The firm has a market cap of $23.91 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 43.64, a PEG ratio of 1.08 and a beta of 0.61. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $98.01 and its 200-day simple moving average is $103.54.

Cardinal Health (NYSE:CAH) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, May 2nd. The company reported $2.08 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.95 by $0.13. The business had revenue of $54.90 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $56.05 billion. Cardinal Health had a negative return on equity of 54.74% and a net margin of 0.25%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 8.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $1.74 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts predict that Cardinal Health, Inc. will post 7.35 EPS for the current year.

Cardinal Health Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, July 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, July 1st were given a dividend of $0.5056 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, July 1st. This is an increase from Cardinal Health’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. This represents a $2.02 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.06%. Cardinal Health’s payout ratio is currently 89.78%.

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.