First Nebraska Trust Co Invests $17.97 Million in Cardinal Health, Inc. $CAH

First Nebraska Trust Co acquired a new stake in shares of Cardinal Health, Inc. (NYSE:CAH) during the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund acquired 85,056 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $17,973,000. Cardinal Health accounts for 1.7% of First Nebraska Trust Co’s portfolio, making the stock its 13th largest holding.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Cardinal Health by 2.0% in the 4th 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. State Street Corp raised its holdings in Cardinal Health by 1.8% during the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 12,509,230 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,570,647,000 after acquiring an additional 221,497 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Cardinal Health by 0.7% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 6,529,013 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,336,750,000 after acquiring an additional 43,924 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its position in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 3,511,579 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Cardinal Health in the fourth quarter worth about $790,344,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 87.17% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

CAH has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company cut their target price on Cardinal Health from $256.00 to $245.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, May 1st. William Blair started coverage on shares of Cardinal Health in a report on Tuesday, April 28th. They set an “outperform” rating for the company. UBS Group lifted their price objective on shares of Cardinal Health from $260.00 to $274.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, July 20th. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Cardinal Health from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Saturday, July 4th. Finally, Evercore dropped their target price on shares of Cardinal Health from $260.00 to $240.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 8th. Fifteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $251.73.

Cardinal Health Trading Up 1.4%

NYSE:CAH opened at $230.18 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $53.91 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.20, a P/E/G ratio of 1.12 and a beta of 0.49. Cardinal Health, Inc. has a 12 month low of $137.75 and a 12 month high of $243.21. The business’s 50-day moving average is $222.95 and its 200 day moving average is $215.30.

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

Cardinal Health Increases Dividend

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