Principal Financial Group Inc. Purchases 11,104 Shares of Cardinal Health, Inc. $CAH

Key Points

• Principal Financial Group increased its stake in Cardinal Health by 4.0%, buying 11,104 shares to hold 287,533 shares worth $59,088,000 (about 0.12% of the company) at quarter end.
• Cardinal Health beat quarterly EPS estimates with $3.17 (vs. $2.79 expected) while revenue of $60.94 billion slightly missed estimates, and the company set FY2026 guidance of 10.70–10.80 EPS.
• Analyst sentiment is broadly positive with a MarketBeat average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $241.80, though individual views vary (e.g., Morgan Stanley raised its target to $255 while JPMorgan cut to $215 and Wall Street Zen upgraded to "strong-buy").

Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its position in Cardinal Health, Inc. (NYSE:CAH - Free Report) by 4.0% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 287,533 shares of the company's stock after buying an additional 11,104 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. owned about 0.12% of Cardinal Health worth $59,088,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of CAH. Redhawk Wealth Advisors Inc. grew its position in shares of Cardinal Health by 0.5% during the fourth quarter. Redhawk Wealth Advisors Inc. now owns 9,255 shares of the company's stock valued at $1,902,000 after purchasing an additional 48 shares in the last quarter. HF Advisory Group LLC lifted its position in shares of Cardinal Health by 0.9% in the fourth quarter. HF Advisory Group LLC now owns 5,227 shares of the company's stock worth $1,074,000 after buying an additional 49 shares in the last quarter. Latitude Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Cardinal Health by 2.1% during the third quarter. Latitude Advisors LLC now owns 2,598 shares of the company's stock valued at $408,000 after buying an additional 53 shares during the last quarter. Barnes Dennig Private Wealth Management LLC grew its holdings in Cardinal Health by 38.7% during the 4th quarter. Barnes Dennig Private Wealth Management LLC now owns 190 shares of the company's stock valued at $39,000 after buying an additional 53 shares in the last quarter. Finally, MFA Wealth Services grew its holdings in Cardinal Health by 2.3% during the 3rd quarter. MFA Wealth Services now owns 2,491 shares of the company's stock valued at $391,000 after buying an additional 55 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 87.17% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms recently weighed in on CAH. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on shares of Cardinal Health from $245.00 to $255.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Tuesday, April 28th. William Blair assumed coverage on shares of Cardinal Health in a research note on Tuesday, April 28th. They set an "outperform" rating on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price objective on shares of Cardinal Health from $243.00 to $215.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research note on Monday. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Cardinal Health from a "buy" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Saturday, May 2nd. Finally, Leerink Partners reaffirmed an "outperform" rating and issued a $275.00 price target on shares of Cardinal Health in a report on Monday, March 9th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have assigned a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $241.80.

Cardinal Health Stock Down 3.3%

CAH stock opened at $185.11 on Friday. Cardinal Health, Inc. has a twelve month low of $137.75 and a twelve month high of $233.60. The firm has a market cap of $43.35 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.30, a PEG ratio of 1.14 and a beta of 0.53. The business's fifty day simple moving average is $211.71 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $206.94.

Cardinal Health (NYSE:CAH - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 30th. The company reported $3.17 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.79 by $0.38. Cardinal Health had a net margin of 0.62% and a negative return on equity of 92.61%. The company had revenue of $60.94 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $62.10 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $2.35 EPS. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 11.0% on a year-over-year basis. Cardinal Health has set its FY 2026 guidance at 10.700-10.80 EPS. Research analysts expect that Cardinal Health, Inc. will post 10.76 EPS for the current year.

Cardinal Health Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 15th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, July 1st will be paid a dividend of $0.5158 per share. This is a boost from Cardinal Health's previous quarterly dividend of $0.51. This represents a $2.06 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.1%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, July 1st. Cardinal Health's payout ratio is 31.19%.

Cardinal Health Profile

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.

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