Cardinal Health (CAH) Outperforms Broader Market: What You Need to Know

Cardinal Health (CAH) ended the recent trading session at $235.60, demonstrating a +2.42% change from the preceding day's closing price. The stock outperformed the S&P 500, which registered a daily gain of 1.48%. Elsewhere, the Dow gained 1.32%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq added 2.13%.

The prescription drug distributor's shares have seen a decrease of 3.73% over the last month, not keeping up with the Medical sector's gain of 0.67% and the S&P 500's gain of 0.19%.

The upcoming earnings release of Cardinal Health will be of great interest to investors. The company's earnings report is expected on August 11, 2026. On that day, Cardinal Health is projected to report earnings of $2.42 per share, which would represent year-over-year growth of 16.35%. At the same time, our most recent consensus estimate is projecting a revenue of $65.63 billion, reflecting a 9.1% rise from the equivalent quarter last year.

For the full year, the Zacks Consensus Estimates project earnings of $10.77 per share and a revenue of $256.25 billion, demonstrating changes of +30.7% and +15.13%, respectively, from the preceding year.

Investors should also take note of any recent adjustments to analyst estimates for Cardinal Health. Recent revisions tend to reflect the latest near-term business trends. As such, positive estimate revisions reflect analyst optimism about the business and profitability.

Our research demonstrates that these adjustments in estimates directly associate with imminent stock price performance. To benefit from this, we have developed the Zacks Rank, a proprietary model which takes these estimate changes into account and provides an actionable rating system.

The Zacks Rank system, stretching from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), has a noteworthy track record of outperforming, validated by third-party audits, with stocks rated #1 producing an average annual return of +25% since the year 1988. Over the past month, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 0.51% higher. Right now, Cardinal Health possesses a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).

Looking at valuation, Cardinal Health is presently trading at a Forward P/E ratio of 19.11. Its industry sports an average Forward P/E of 17.62, so one might conclude that Cardinal Health is trading at a premium comparatively.

We can also see that CAH currently has a PEG ratio of 1.12. The PEG ratio bears resemblance to the frequently used P/E ratio, but this parameter also includes the company's expected earnings growth trajectory. The average PEG ratio for the Medical - Dental Supplies industry stood at 1.89 at the close of the market yesterday.

The Medical - Dental Supplies industry is part of the Medical sector. At present, this industry carries a Zacks Industry Rank of 74, placing it within the top 31% of over 250 industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our individual 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.

Remember to apply Zacks.com to follow these and more stock-moving metrics during the upcoming trading sessions.

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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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