Russell Investments Group Ltd. Decreases Stock Position in Cardinal Health, Inc. $CAH

Russell Investments Group Ltd. reduced its holdings in shares of Cardinal Health, Inc. (NYSE:CAH) by 4.5% in the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 495,142 shares of the company’s stock after selling 23,215 shares during the period. Russell Investments Group Ltd.’s holdings in Cardinal Health were worth $77,603,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Cardinal Health by 0.8% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 30,823,483 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,838,054,000 after purchasing an additional 247,667 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Cardinal Health by 3.3% during the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 6,389,049 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,069,005,000 after acquiring an additional 205,539 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Cardinal Health during the 2nd quarter worth about $584,420,000. Invesco Ltd. lifted its holdings in Cardinal Health by 7.3% in the 2nd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 3,037,782 shares of the company’s stock valued at $510,347,000 after purchasing an additional 207,750 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc boosted its stake in shares of Cardinal Health by 2.0% during the 2nd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 2,349,767 shares of the company’s stock worth $394,761,000 after purchasing an additional 45,812 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 87.17% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts have commented on CAH shares. Wall Street Zen cut shares of Cardinal Health from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, February 21st. Citigroup upgraded shares of Cardinal Health from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $190.00 to $244.00 in a report on Friday, January 9th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on shares of Cardinal Health from $209.00 to $243.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 10th. Mizuho boosted their price target on Cardinal Health from $222.00 to $235.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, February 6th. Finally, Robert W. Baird set a $252.00 target price on shares of Cardinal Health in a research report on Friday, February 6th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have issued a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $245.67.

Cardinal Health Price Performance

Cardinal Health stock opened at $216.91 on Wednesday. Cardinal Health, Inc. has a 12-month low of $120.72 and a 12-month high of $233.60. The company has a market capitalization of $51.04 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.21, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.43 and a beta of 0.65. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $216.14 and its 200 day moving average price is $191.03.

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

Cardinal Health Dividend Announcement

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 dividend of $0.5107 per share. This represents a $2.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.9%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, April 1st. Cardinal Health’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 29.35%.

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.