Cardinal Health (CAH) Gains But Lags Market: What You Should Know
Cardinal Health (CAH) closed the most recent trading day at $70.51, moving +0.99% from the previous trading session. This change lagged the S&P 500's 1.76% gain on the day. At the same time, the Dow added 1.17%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq gained 3.03%.
Coming into today, shares of the prescription drug distributor had lost 11.15% in the past month. In that same time, the Medical sector lost 4.26%, while the S&P 500 lost 5.94%.
Cardinal Health will be looking to display strength as it nears its next earnings release. On that day, Cardinal Health is projected to report earnings of $1.46 per share, which would represent year-over-year growth of 0.69%. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $49.05 billion, up 9.39% from the year-ago period.
For the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates are projecting earnings of $5.42 per share and revenue of $201.83 billion, which would represent changes of +7.11% and +11.29%, respectively, from the prior year.
Investors might also notice recent changes to analyst estimates for Cardinal Health. These revisions help to show the ever-changing nature of near-term business trends. With this in mind, we can consider positive estimate revisions a sign of optimism about the company's business outlook.
Research indicates that these estimate revisions are directly correlated with near-term share price momentum. Investors can capitalize on this by using the Zacks Rank. This model considers these estimate changes and provides a simple, actionable rating system.
The Zacks Rank system, which ranges from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), has an impressive outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks generating an average annual return of +25% since 1988. Over the past month, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 0.37% higher. Cardinal Health is currently a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).
Investors should also note Cardinal Health's current valuation metrics, including its Forward P/E ratio of 12.88. For comparison, its industry has an average Forward P/E of 19.6, which means Cardinal Health is trading at a discount to the group.
It is also worth noting that CAH currently has a PEG ratio of 1.11. This popular metric is similar to the widely-known P/E ratio, with the difference being that the PEG ratio also takes into account the company's expected earnings growth rate. The Medical - Dental Supplies was holding an average PEG ratio of 1.98 at yesterday's closing price.
The Medical - Dental Supplies industry is part of the Medical sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 60, which puts it in the top 24% of all 250+ industries.
The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our industry groups by measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.
You can find more information on all of these metrics, and much more, on Zacks.com.
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Cardinal Health, Inc. (CAH) : Free Stock Analysis Report
