Cencora NYSE: COR reported fiscal 2026 third-quarter results marked by double-digit adjusted operating income growth, specialty-business momentum and $1 billion in share repurchases, prompting the pharmaceutical services company to raise its full-year adjusted earnings outlook.
Adjusted operating income rose 17% from the prior-year quarter, while adjusted earnings per share increased 12%, supported in part by the company’s share repurchases. Revenue increased 5% to $84.8 billion, and adjusted gross profit climbed 23% to $3.5 billion.
“Our third quarter performance reflects the strength of our pharmaceutical-centric strategy, the breadth of our specialty platform, and our disciplined capital deployment,” Chief Financial Officer Eva Boratto said on her first earnings call after joining the company in June.
Cencora raised its fiscal 2026 adjusted EPS guidance to a range of $17.75 to $17.95, from a previous range of $17.70 to $17.90. The company maintained its adjusted free cash flow outlook of approximately $3 billion for the full year.
U.S. Segment Results Driven by Specialty
U.S. Healthcare Solutions revenue rose 5% to $74.9 billion. The company cited specialty growth across health systems and physician practices, along with a $2.3 billion year-over-year increase in GLP-1 sales.
Those gains were partly offset by $2.4 billion of revenue pressure from manufacturer list-price reductions, the 2025 loss of an oncology customer and lower sales to a large mail-order customer.
U.S. Healthcare Solutions operating income increased 16% to $966 million. Boratto said specialty growth extended across Cencora’s management services organizations, health systems and community-provider businesses. Both the OneOncology and Retina Consultants of America, or RCA, MSO platforms performed ahead of expectations, she said.
Excluding OneOncology’s contribution and the prior loss of the oncology customer, the company’s core business generated double-digit organic operating income growth, management said.
CEO Bob Mauch said the company saw a sequential rebound in specialty utilization from the fiscal second quarter. Oncology was the larger contributor, while retina also supported the improvement, according to Boratto.
Mauch highlighted the importance of biosimilars, particularly in Medicare Part B’s physician-administered, buy-and-bill market. While biosimilars remain incrementally positive in Part D, he said their profit opportunity is greater in Part B because Cencora provides broader distribution, group purchasing, manufacturer and physician-support services.
“Part B will always be good, and we feel very confident about the durability of that over the long term,” Mauch said.
OneOncology Integration and MSO Strategy
Cencora acquired OneOncology in February 2026 and said the business is performing modestly ahead of its initial operating-income expectations. The acquisition contributed to higher gross profit, operating expenses and interest expense during the quarter.
The company said it expects OneOncology to remain neutral to adjusted EPS on a 12-month basis, net of financing. Boratto also noted that Cencora changed its treatment of a non-controlling loss related to OneOncology’s UUG subsidiary during the third quarter, though the accounting change had no impact on operating income.
Mauch described Cencora’s MSO value-creation strategy in three phases:
- Integrating the MSOs into Cencora and providing the company’s existing capabilities;
- Sharing capabilities across the platform, including clinical-trial services;
- Developing new services and analytics solutions for physicians and pharmaceutical manufacturers.
He said RCA is further along in developing its clinical-trials platform, while OneOncology remains in earlier stages and offers substantial room for growth. Cencora plans to focus MSO investment on tuck-in acquisitions within oncology and retina, which Mauch said are currently the two specialties the company views as pharmaceutical-centric.
International Growth and Capital Deployment
International Healthcare Solutions revenue rose 6% to $7.7 billion, both as reported and on a constant-currency basis. Operating income increased 21% as reported, or 23% in constant currency, to $166 million.
The international performance reflected growth in European distribution, World Courier and European third-party logistics operations. Cencora said its European distribution business continued to benefit from the timing of manufacturer price adjustments in a developing-market country, though it does not expect that benefit in the fourth quarter.
World Courier showed momentum after a challenging fiscal 2025 market, while the European 3PL business benefited from renewals, pricing initiatives and new business wins, Boratto said.
The company ended June with $2.8 billion in cash and year-to-date adjusted free cash flow of $1.1 billion. It also repaid the full $800 million balance of its RCA financing term loan, including $400 million during the June quarter and another $400 million in July.
Cencora repurchased $1 billion of shares during the quarter at an average price of $268 per share, reducing diluted share count by 0.7% year over year to 193.9 million shares. The repurchases increased expected net interest expense for the year to about $490 million because of lower interest income, the company said.
Updated Outlook and Fiscal 2027 Considerations
For fiscal 2026, Cencora now expects consolidated adjusted operating income growth of 13% to 14%. It projects U.S. Healthcare Solutions operating income growth of 14.5% to 15.5%, International Healthcare Solutions operating income growth of approximately 9%, and Other operating income growth of approximately 10%.
The company expects U.S. Healthcare Solutions revenue growth to fall in the lower half of its previously issued 4% to 6% range. It now forecasts International Healthcare Solutions revenue growth of approximately 8% as reported and approximately 7% on a constant-currency basis, citing a stronger dollar during the second half of the year.
For fiscal 2027, management said it will provide formal guidance on its November earnings call. Cencora noted that if its planned merger of MWI Animal Health with Covetrus closes at the midpoint of fiscal 2027, it would create an estimated $150 million operating-income headwind in the Other segment and an approximate $0.35 EPS headwind after considering the transaction structure.
The company said it has no update on the timing of the proposed EyeSouth retina carve-out acquisition and advised against including it in fiscal 2027 estimates at this point.
Mauch said Cencora remains confident in its long-term growth framework, supported by its U.S. and international businesses, specialty capabilities and broad customer portfolio.
About Cencora (NYSE:COR)
Cencora NYSE: COR is a global healthcare services and pharmaceutical distribution company that provides end-to-end solutions across the pharmaceutical supply chain. The company's core activities include wholesale drug distribution, specialty drug distribution, and the operation of specialty pharmacies, complemented by logistics, cold-chain management and other fulfillment services designed to support complex and temperature-sensitive therapies.
Beyond physical distribution, Cencora offers a range of commercial and patient-focused services for pharmaceutical manufacturers and healthcare providers.
This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest reporting and unbiased coverage. Please send any questions or comments about this story to contact@marketbeat.com.
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