Cardinal Health, Inc. (NYSE:CAH) Receives $119.36 Consensus Target Price from Brokerages

Shares of Cardinal Health, Inc. (NYSE:CAH) have earned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the twelve research firms that are presently covering the stock, Marketbeat.com reports. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company. The average 1-year target price among brokerages that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $119.36.

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on shares of Cardinal Health from $114.00 to $119.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, August 15th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on shares of Cardinal Health from $111.00 to $123.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 21st. Evercore ISI lifted their price objective on shares of Cardinal Health from $105.00 to $115.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a report on Thursday, August 15th. Robert W. Baird lifted their price objective on shares of Cardinal Health from $130.00 to $137.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, August 15th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their price target on shares of Cardinal Health from $115.00 to $119.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, August 16th.

Cardinal Health Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:CAH opened at $112.41 on Monday. The firm has a market cap of $27.38 billion, a PE ratio of 49.96, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.57 and a beta of 0.60. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $111.00 and its 200-day simple moving average is $104.01. Cardinal Health has a one year low of $90.19 and a one year high of $116.05.

Cardinal Health (NYSE:CAH) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 14th. The company reported $1.84 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.74 by $0.10. The company had revenue of $59.87 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $58.74 billion. Cardinal Health had a net margin of 0.37% and a negative return on equity of 54.85%. Cardinal Health’s revenue was up 12.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.55 earnings per share. Equities research analysts predict that Cardinal Health will post 7.61 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Cardinal Health Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, October 15th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, October 1st were paid a dividend of $0.506 per share. This is an increase from Cardinal Health’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.51. This represents a $2.02 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.80%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, October 1st. Cardinal Health’s payout ratio is presently 89.78%.

Insider Transactions at Cardinal Health

In other news, CEO Jason M. Hollar sold 46,455 shares of Cardinal Health stock in a transaction on Monday, August 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $109.02, for a total transaction of $5,064,524.10. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 197,636 shares in the company, valued at approximately $21,546,276.72. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other news, CEO Jason M. Hollar sold 46,455 shares of Cardinal Health stock in a transaction on Monday, August 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $109.02, for a total transaction of $5,064,524.10. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 197,636 shares in the company, valued at approximately $21,546,276.72. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Jessica L. Mayer sold 17,896 shares of Cardinal Health stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $106.48, for a total transaction of $1,905,566.08. Following the sale, the insider now owns 94,529 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $10,065,447.92. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 113,963 shares of company stock worth $12,379,980. Company insiders own 0.15% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in CAH. Point72 Asset Management L.P. acquired a new position in Cardinal Health during the second quarter valued at $90,440,000. Acadian Asset Management LLC lifted its position in Cardinal Health by 19.1% during the first quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 3,723,159 shares of the company’s stock valued at $416,585,000 after purchasing an additional 598,002 shares during the period. Jupiter Asset Management Ltd. acquired a new position in Cardinal Health during the first quarter valued at $56,454,000. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. lifted its position in Cardinal Health by 265.6% during the first quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. now owns 657,526 shares of the company’s stock valued at $73,577,000 after purchasing an additional 477,682 shares during the period. Finally, Swedbank AB acquired a new position in Cardinal Health during the first quarter valued at $48,673,000. 87.17% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.