Cardinal Health (NYSE:CAH) Upgraded by StockNews.com to “Strong-Buy”

Cardinal Health (NYSE:CAH) was upgraded by research analysts at StockNews.com from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note issued to investors on Thursday.

A number of other research firms have also recently weighed in on CAH. Robert W. Baird boosted their target price on shares of Cardinal Health from $130.00 to $137.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 15th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their target price on shares of Cardinal Health from $115.00 to $119.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, August 16th. Citigroup dropped their target price on shares of Cardinal Health from $115.00 to $107.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, July 19th. UBS Group upped their price target on shares of Cardinal Health from $120.00 to $125.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 15th. Finally, Argus upped their price target on shares of Cardinal Health from $115.00 to $125.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 11th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating, seven have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $119.36.

Cardinal Health Stock Performance

Shares of CAH stock opened at $112.55 on Thursday. Cardinal Health has a 52-week low of $90.19 and a 52-week high of $116.05. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $110.50 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $103.95. The company has a market capitalization of $27.41 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 50.02, a PEG ratio of 1.57 and a beta of 0.60.

Cardinal Health (NYSE:CAH) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, August 14th. The company reported $1.84 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.74 by $0.10. The firm had revenue of $59.87 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $58.74 billion. Cardinal Health had a net margin of 0.37% and a negative return on equity of 54.85%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 12.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $1.55 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Cardinal Health will post 7.61 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Cardinal Health news, insider Jessica L. Mayer sold 16,573 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $109.39, for a total value of $1,812,920.47. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 75,971 shares in the company, valued at $8,310,467.69. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. In other news, insider Jessica L. Mayer sold 16,573 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $109.39, for a total value of $1,812,920.47. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 75,971 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,310,467.69. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, insider Jessica L. Mayer sold 17,896 shares of the 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 completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 94,529 shares in the company, valued at $10,065,447.92. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 113,963 shares of company stock worth $12,379,980 in the last three months. 0.15% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Cardinal Health

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in CAH. Virtu Financial LLC bought a new position in shares of Cardinal Health during the 4th quarter valued at $244,000. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its holdings in shares of Cardinal Health by 107.8% during the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 24,348 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,454,000 after purchasing an additional 12,631 shares during the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Cardinal Health by 39.3% during the 4th quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 4,193 shares of the company’s stock valued at $423,000 after purchasing an additional 1,183 shares during the last quarter. HighPoint Advisor Group LLC bought a new position in shares of Cardinal Health during the 4th quarter valued at $515,000. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC grew its holdings in shares of Cardinal Health by 50.5% during the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,856 shares of the company’s stock valued at $208,000 after purchasing an additional 623 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.