Cardinal Health (CAH) Competitors

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

Do analysts recommend CAH or MCK?

Cardinal Health currently has a consensus price target of $146.43, suggesting a potential downside of 3.92%. McKesson has a consensus price target of $686.69, suggesting a potential downside of 3.32%. Given McKesson's stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly 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)	4 Hold rating(s)	10 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.71
McKesson	0 Sell rating(s)	3 Hold rating(s)	11 Buy rating(s)	1 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.87

Which has preferable earnings & 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	0.16	$852M	$6.41	23.78
McKesson	$359.05B	0.25	$3.00B	$25.83	27.50

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, 74.28% of users gave McKesson an outperform vote while only 71.49% of users gave Cardinal Health an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Cardinal Health	Outperform Votes 928 71.49%	Underperform Votes 370 28.51%
McKesson	Outperform Votes 979 74.28%	Underperform Votes 339 25.72%

Which has more volatility and risk, CAH or MCK?

Cardinal Health has a beta of 0.66, suggesting that its share price is 34% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, McKesson has a beta of 0.53, suggesting that its share price is 47% less volatile than the S&P 500.

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

Does the media prefer CAH or MCK?

In the previous week, McKesson had 8 more articles in the media than Cardinal Health. MarketBeat recorded 39 mentions for McKesson and 31 mentions for Cardinal Health. Cardinal Health's average media sentiment score of 1.51 beat McKesson's score of 1.41 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	28 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	3 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Very Positive
McKesson	35 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	2 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

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 raised its dividend for 29 consecutive years and McKesson has raised 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.

Summary

McKesson beats Cardinal Health on 16 of the 22 factors compared between the two stocks.