Empowered Funds LLC Sells 50,991 Shares of Cardinal Health, Inc. $CAH

Empowered Funds LLC cut its stake in shares of Cardinal Health, Inc. (NYSE:CAH) by 51.0% in the first quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 48,940 shares of the company’s stock after selling 50,991 shares during the period. Empowered Funds LLC’s holdings in Cardinal Health were worth $10,317,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Cardinal Health during the 4th quarter worth about $790,344,000. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its position in Cardinal Health by 153.2% in the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 5,804,090 shares of the company’s stock valued at $911,010,000 after buying an additional 3,511,579 shares in the last quarter. Marshall Wace LLP grew its stake in Cardinal Health by 1,328.1% during the fourth quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 951,259 shares of the company’s stock worth $195,484,000 after buying an additional 884,648 shares during the last quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. grew its stake in Cardinal Health by 7,053.4% during the first quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 750,038 shares of the company’s stock worth $158,491,000 after buying an additional 739,553 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Cardinal Health by 2.0% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 31,441,258 shares of the company’s stock worth $6,461,179,000 after buying an additional 617,775 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 87.17% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on CAH shares. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Cardinal Health from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, July 4th. Citigroup lifted their price objective on Cardinal Health from $245.00 to $265.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, July 24th. UBS Group boosted their price objective on Cardinal Health from $260.00 to $274.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, July 20th. Robert W. Baird set a $248.00 target price on Cardinal Health in a report on Friday, May 1st. Finally, TD Cowen raised their target price on Cardinal Health from $255.00 to $275.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 9th. Fifteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Cardinal Health presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $251.73.

Cardinal Health Price Performance

Shares of Cardinal Health stock opened at $227.30 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $222.35 and a 200 day simple moving average of $215.20. Cardinal Health, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $137.75 and a fifty-two week high of $243.21. The firm has a market cap of $53.24 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.76, a P/E/G ratio of 1.12 and a beta of 0.49.

Cardinal Health (NYSE:CAH) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 30th. The company reported $3.17 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.79 by $0.38. The firm had revenue of $60.94 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $62.10 billion. Cardinal Health had a negative return on equity of 92.61% and a net margin of 0.62%.The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $2.35 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Cardinal Health, Inc. will post 10.77 EPS for the current year.

Cardinal Health Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, July 15th. Investors of record on Wednesday, July 1st were given a $0.5158 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, July 1st. This is a positive change from Cardinal Health’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.51. This represents a $2.06 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.9%. Cardinal Health’s dividend payout ratio is 31.50%.

Cardinal Health Company 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.