Cardinal Health (CAH) Competitors

Cardinal Health (NYSE:CAH) and McKesson (NYSE:MCK) are both large-cap medical companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their institutional ownership, earnings, community ranking, media sentiment, valuation, dividends, profitability, risk and analyst recommendations.

Which has more risk and volatility, CAH or MCK?

Cardinal Health has a beta of 0.66, meaning that its stock price is 34% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, McKesson has a beta of 0.49, meaning that its stock price is 51% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Do analysts recommend CAH or MCK?

Cardinal Health presently has a consensus target price of $150.57, suggesting a potential downside of 5.38%. McKesson has a consensus target price of $694.38, suggesting a potential downside of 4.41%. Given McKesson's stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe McKesson is more favorable than Cardinal Health.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Cardinal Health	0 Sell rating(s)	3 Hold rating(s)	11 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.79
McKesson	0 Sell rating(s)	3 Hold rating(s)	11 Buy rating(s)	1 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.87

Is CAH or MCK a better dividend stock?

Cardinal Health pays an annual dividend of $2.04 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.3%. McKesson pays an annual dividend of $2.84 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.4%. Cardinal Health pays out 31.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. McKesson pays out 11.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. Cardinal Health has increased its dividend for 29 consecutive years and McKesson has increased its dividend for 17 consecutive years. Cardinal Health is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Is CAH or MCK more profitable?

McKesson has a net margin of 0.82% compared to Cardinal Health's net margin of 0.59%. Cardinal Health's return on equity of -59.57% beat McKesson's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Cardinal Health	0.59%	-59.57%	4.17%
McKesson	0.82%	-181.26%	5.34%

Does the MarketBeat Community prefer CAH or MCK?

McKesson received 51 more outperform votes than Cardinal Health when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 74.26% of users gave McKesson an outperform vote while only 71.54% of users gave Cardinal Health an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Cardinal Health	Outperform Votes 930 71.54%	Underperform Votes 370 28.46%
McKesson	Outperform Votes 981 74.26%	Underperform Votes 340 25.74%

Do insiders and institutionals hold more shares of CAH or MCK?

87.2% of Cardinal Health shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 85.1% of McKesson shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.1% of Cardinal Health shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.1% of McKesson shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Does the media prefer CAH or MCK?

In the previous week, McKesson had 5 more articles in the media than Cardinal Health. MarketBeat recorded 43 mentions for McKesson and 38 mentions for Cardinal Health. Cardinal Health's average media sentiment score of 1.20 beat McKesson's score of 1.17 indicating that Cardinal Health is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Cardinal Health	20 Very Positive mention(s)	8 Positive mention(s)	8 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
McKesson	33 Very Positive mention(s)	4 Positive mention(s)	4 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Which has stronger earnings and valuation, CAH or MCK?

McKesson has higher revenue and earnings than Cardinal Health. Cardinal Health is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than McKesson, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Company	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Cardinal Health	$222.29B	0.17	$852M	$6.41	24.83
McKesson	$359.05B	0.25	$3.00B	$25.83	28.12

Summary

McKesson beats Cardinal Health on 15 of the 21 factors compared between the two stocks.