Short Interest in Cardinal Health, Inc. (NYSE:CAH) Rises By 21.1%

Cardinal Health, Inc. (NYSE:CAH) was the target of a large increase in short interest in March. As of March 13th, there was short interest totaling 6,045,787 shares, an increase of 21.1% from the February 26th total of 4,994,109 shares. Approximately 2.6% of the shares of the company are sold short. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 1,951,550 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 3.1 days.

Institutional Trading of Cardinal Health

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Cardinal Health by 2.0% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 31,441,258 shares of the company’s stock valued at $6,461,179,000 after buying an additional 617,775 shares during the period. State Street Corp grew its holdings in Cardinal Health by 1.8% in the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 12,509,230 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,570,647,000 after purchasing an additional 221,497 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Cardinal Health by 0.7% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 6,529,013 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,336,750,000 after purchasing an additional 43,924 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its position in shares of Cardinal Health by 153.2% in the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 5,804,090 shares of the company’s stock worth $911,010,000 after purchasing an additional 3,511,579 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Cardinal Health in the 4th quarter worth $790,344,000. Institutional investors own 87.17% of the company’s stock.

Cardinal Health Price Performance

CAH stock opened at $211.76 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $49.83 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.34, a P/E/G ratio of 1.33 and a beta of 0.65. The business has a 50-day moving average of $217.30 and a 200-day moving average of $197.56. Cardinal Health has a fifty-two week low of $120.72 and a fifty-two week high of $233.60.

Cardinal Health (NYSE:CAH) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 5th. The company reported $2.63 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.31 by $0.32. The firm had revenue of $65.63 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $64.88 billion. Cardinal Health had a net margin of 0.68% and a negative return on equity of 92.50%. The business’s revenue was up 18.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.93 EPS. Equities analysts expect that Cardinal Health will post 7.95 EPS for the current year.

Cardinal Health Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 15th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, April 1st will be paid a $0.5107 dividend. This represents a $2.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.0%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, April 1st. Cardinal Health’s dividend payout ratio is 29.35%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

CAH has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Jefferies Financial Group raised their price objective on Cardinal Health from $220.00 to $270.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 22nd. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Cardinal Health in a research note on Wednesday, January 21st. Barclays lifted their target price on Cardinal Health from $243.00 to $258.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 24th. Robert W. Baird set a $252.00 target price on shares of Cardinal Health in a report on Friday, February 6th. Finally, Argus raised their price objective on shares of Cardinal Health from $232.00 to $248.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 11th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have assigned a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $245.67.

About Cardinal Health

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.