Cardinal Health, Inc. (NYSE:CAH) to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $0.51

Cardinal Health, Inc. (NYSE:CAH) announced a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, November 5th, RTT News reports. Investors of record on Thursday, January 2nd will be paid a dividend of 0.5056 per share on Wednesday, January 15th. This represents a $2.02 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.75%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, January 2nd.

Cardinal Health has raised its dividend payment by an average of 1.0% annually over the last three years and has increased its dividend every year for the last 28 years. Cardinal Health has a dividend payout ratio of 26.1% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect Cardinal Health to earn $8.54 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $2.02 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 23.7%.

Cardinal Health Stock Up 2.1 %

CAH stock opened at $115.58 on Thursday. Cardinal Health has a 52 week low of $93.17 and a 52 week high of $119.13. The firm has a market capitalization of $27.97 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.49, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.57 and a beta of 0.60. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $111.95 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $104.31.

Cardinal Health (NYSE:CAH) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Friday, November 1st. The company reported $1.88 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.62 by $0.26. The company had revenue of $52.28 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $50.90 billion. Cardinal Health had a negative return on equity of 56.56% and a net margin of 0.56%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 4.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.73 earnings per share. As a group, analysts anticipate that Cardinal Health will post 7.69 EPS for the current year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have weighed in on the stock. Evercore ISI boosted their price objective on shares of Cardinal Health from $105.00 to $115.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 15th. Argus increased their price objective on shares of Cardinal Health from $115.00 to $125.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 11th. Barclays boosted their target price on Cardinal Health from $117.00 to $133.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on Cardinal Health from $111.00 to $123.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 21st. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on Cardinal Health from $119.00 to $127.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Cardinal Health presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $123.00.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Jason M. Hollar sold 46,455 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $109.02, for a total value of $5,064,524.10. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 197,636 shares in the company, valued at approximately $21,546,276.72. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In related news, CEO Jason M. Hollar sold 46,455 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, August 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $109.02, for a total transaction of $5,064,524.10. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 197,636 shares in the company, valued at $21,546,276.72. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, insider Jessica L. Mayer sold 17,896 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $106.48, for a total value of $1,905,566.08. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 94,529 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,065,447.92. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 113,963 shares of company stock valued at $12,379,980 over the last three months. 0.09% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

About Cardinal Health

Cardinal Health, Inc operates as a healthcare services and products company in the United States, Canada, Europe, Asia, and internationally. It provides customized solutions for hospitals, healthcare systems, pharmacies, ambulatory surgery centers, clinical laboratories, physician offices, and patients in the home.