Cardinal Health (CAH) Gains But Lags Market: What You Should Know
Cardinal Health (CAH) closed at $75.50 in the latest trading session, marking a +0.2% move from the prior day. The stock lagged the S&P 500's daily gain of 1.44%. At the same time, the Dow added 1.26%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq gained 5.21%.
Coming into today, shares of the prescription drug distributor had gained 0.86% in the past month. In that same time, the Medical sector gained 2.17%, while the S&P 500 gained 2.28%.
Cardinal Health will be looking to display strength as it nears its next earnings release, which is expected to be May 4, 2023. In that report, analysts expect Cardinal Health to post earnings of $1.46 per share. This would mark 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.
Looking at the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates suggest analysts are expecting earnings of $5.42 per share and revenue of $201.83 billion. These totals would mark changes of +7.11% and +11.29%, respectively, from last year.
Investors might also notice recent changes to analyst estimates for Cardinal Health. Recent revisions tend to reflect the latest near-term business trends. As a result, we can interpret positive estimate revisions as a good sign for the company's business outlook.
Our research shows that these estimate changes are directly correlated with near-term stock prices. 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 ranges from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell). It has a remarkable, outside-audited track record of success, with #1 stocks delivering an average annual return of +25% since 1988. The Zacks Consensus EPS estimate remained stagnant within the past month. Cardinal Health is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).
In terms of valuation, Cardinal Health is currently trading at a Forward P/E ratio of 13.9. Its industry sports an average Forward P/E of 20.36, so we one might conclude that Cardinal Health is trading at a discount comparatively.
We can also see that CAH currently has a PEG ratio of 1.2. 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. CAH's industry had an average PEG ratio of 2.09 as of yesterday's close.
The Medical - Dental Supplies industry is part of the Medical sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 56, putting it in the top 23% of all 250+ industries.
The Zacks Industry Rank includes is listed in order from best to worst in terms of the average Zacks Rank of the individual companies within each of these sectors. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.
Make sure to utilize Zacks.com to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and more, in the coming trading sessions.
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Cardinal Health, Inc. (CAH) : Free Stock Analysis Report
