How to buy Cardinal Health shares

Cardinal Health, Inc (CAH) is a leading medical distribution business with stocks listed in the US. It opened the day at US$60.32 after a previous close of US$60.01. During the day the price has varied from a low of USD59.126 to a high of USD60.38. The latest price was USD59.31 (25 minute delay). Cardinal Health is listed on the NYSE. All prices are listed in US Dollars.

How to buy shares in Cardinal Health

1. Compare share trading platforms. To buy shares in a US company from Australia you'll need to find a trading platform that offers access to US stock markets. If you're just starting out, look for a platform with low brokerage and foreign exchange fees.
2. Open and fund your brokerage account. Complete an application with your personal and financial details, like your ID and tax file number. Fund your account with a bank transfer, credit card or debit card.
3. Search for Cardinal Health. Find the share by name or ticker symbol: CAH. Research its history to confirm it's a solid investment against your financial goals.
4. Purchase now or later. Buy today with a market order or use a limit order to delay your purchase until Cardinal Health reaches your desired price. To spread out your risk, look into dollar-cost averaging, which smooths out buying at consistent intervals and amounts.
5. Decide on how many to buy. At last close price of US$56.56, weigh your budget against a diversified portfolio that can minimise risk through the market's ups and downs. You may be able to buy a fractional share of Cardinal Health, depending on your broker.
6. Check in on your investment. Congratulations, you own a part of Cardinal Health. Optimise your portfolio by tracking how your stock — and even the business — performs with an eye on the long term. You may be eligible for dividends and shareholder voting rights on directors and management that can affect your stock.

Cardinal Health share price

Use our graph to track the performance of CAH stocks over time.

Cardinal Health shares at a glance

• Live prices
• Key figures

Information last updated 2021-06-11.

Open	US$60.32
High	US$60.38
Low	US$59.126
Close	US$59.31
Previous close	US$60.01
Change	US$-0.7
Change %	-1.1665%
Volume	3,762,472

Information last updated 2021-06-10.

52-week range	US$43.4443 - US$62.4688
50-day moving average	US$58.0417
200-day moving average	US$56.2948
Target price	US$63.06
PE ratio	15.3712
Dividend yield	US$1.944 (3.32%)
Earnings per share (TTM)	US$3.906

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The value of your investments can fall as well as rise and you may get back less than you invested. Past performance is no indication of future results.

Is it a good time to buy Cardinal Health stock?

The technical analysis gauge below displays real-time ratings for the timeframes you select. This is not a recommendation, however. It represents a technical analysis based on the most popular technical indicators: Moving Averages, Oscillators and Pivots. Finder might not concur and takes no responsibility.

Technical Analysis of Cardinal Health, Inc by TradingView

Cardinal Health price performance over time

Historical closes compared with the last close of $59.31

1 month (2021-05-12)	6.27%
3 months (2021-03-12)	3.42%
6 months (2020-12-11)	9.27%

1 year (2020-06-12)	12.14%
2 years (2019-06-12)	34.12%
3 years (2018-06-12)	10.76%
5 years (2016-06-10)	-24.47%

Is Cardinal Health under- or over-valued?

Valuing Cardinal Health stock is incredibly difficult, and any metric has to be viewed as part of a bigger picture of Cardinal Health's overall performance. However, analysts commonly use some key metrics to help gauge the value of a stock.

Cardinal Health's P/E ratio

Cardinal Health's current share price divided by its per-share earnings (EPS) over a 12-month period gives a "trailing price/earnings ratio" of roughly 15x. In other words, Cardinal Health shares trade at around 15x recent earnings.

That's relatively low compared to, say, the trailing 12-month P/E ratio for the NASDAQ 100 at the end of 2019 (27.29). The low P/E ratio could mean that investors are pessimistic about the outlook for the shares or simply that they're under-valued.

Cardinal Health's PEG ratio

Cardinal Health's "price/earnings-to-growth ratio" can be calculated by dividing its P/E ratio by its growth – to give 4.5786. A low ratio can be interpreted as meaning the shares offer better value, while a higher ratio can be interpreted as meaning the shares offer worse value.

The PEG ratio provides a broader view than just the P/E ratio, as it gives more insight into Cardinal Health's future profitability. By accounting for growth, it could also help you if you're comparing the share prices of multiple high-growth companies.

Cardinal Health's EBITDA

Cardinal Health's EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation) is US$2.7 billion.

The EBITDA is a measure of a Cardinal Health's overall financial performance and is widely used to measure a its profitability.

Cardinal Health financials

Revenue TTM	US$156.6 billion
Operating margin TTM	1.2%
Gross profit TTM	US$6.9 billion
Return on assets TTM	2.77%
Return on equity TTM	76.93%
Profit margin	0.74%
Book value	6.151
Market capitalisation	US$17.4 billion

TTM: trailing 12 months

Shorting Cardinal Health shares

There are currently 5.0 million Cardinal Health shares held short by investors – that's known as Cardinal Health's "short interest". This figure is 8.4% up from 4.6 million last month.

There are a few different ways that this level of interest in shorting Cardinal Health shares can be evaluated.

Cardinal Health's "short interest ratio" (SIR)

Cardinal Health's "short interest ratio" (SIR) is the quantity of Cardinal Health shares currently shorted divided by the average quantity of Cardinal Health shares traded daily (recently around 2.5 million). Cardinal Health's SIR currently stands at 2.02. In other words for every 100,000 Cardinal Health shares traded daily on the market, roughly 2020 shares are currently held short.

However Cardinal Health's short interest can also be evaluated against the total number of Cardinal Health shares, or, against the total number of tradable Cardinal Health shares (the shares that aren't held by "insiders" or major long-term shareholders – also known as the "float"). In this case Cardinal Health's short interest could be expressed as 0.02% of the outstanding shares (for every 100,000 Cardinal Health shares in existence, roughly 20 shares are currently held short) or 0.0195% of the tradable shares (for every 100,000 tradable Cardinal Health shares, roughly 20 shares are currently held short).

Such a low SIR usually points to an optimistic outlook for the share price, with fewer people currently willing to bet against Cardinal Health.

Find out more about how you can short Cardinal Health stock.

Cardinal Health's environmental, social and governance track record

Environmental, social and governance (known as ESG) criteria are a set of three factors used to measure the sustainability and social impact of companies like Cardinal Health.

When it comes to ESG scores, lower is better, and lower scores are generally associated with lower risk for would-be investors.

Cardinal Health's total ESG risk score

Total ESG risk: 12.66

Socially conscious investors use ESG scores to screen how an investment aligns with their worldview, and Cardinal Health's overall score of 12.66 (as at 12/31/2018) is excellent – landing it in it in the 6th percentile of companies rated in the same sector.

ESG scores are increasingly used to estimate the level of risk a company like Cardinal Health is exposed to within the areas of "environmental" (carbon footprint, resource use etc.), "social" (health and safety, human rights etc.), and "governance" (anti-corruption, tax transparency etc.).

Cardinal Health's environmental score

Environmental score: 0.25/100

Cardinal Health's social score

Social score: 5.84/100

Cardinal Health's governance score

Governance score: 1.08/100

Cardinal Health's controversy score

Controversy score: 3/5

ESG scores also evaluate any incidences of controversy that a company has been involved in. Cardinal Health scored a 3 out of 5 for controversy – a middle-of-the-table result reflecting that Cardinal Health hasn't always managed to keep its nose clean.

Environmental, social, and governance (ESG) summary

Cardinal Health, Inc was last rated for ESG on: 2019-01-01.

Total ESG score	12.66
Total ESG percentile	6.34
Environmental score	0.25
Social score	5.84
Governance score	1.08
Level of controversy	3

Cardinal Health share dividends

Dividend payout ratio: 33.48% of net profits

Recently Cardinal Health has paid out, on average, around 33.48% of net profits as dividends. That has enabled analysts to estimate a "forward annual dividend yield" of 3.35% of the current stock value. This means that over a year, based on recent payouts (which are sadly no guarantee of future payouts), Cardinal Health shareholders could enjoy a 3.35% return on their shares, in the form of dividend payments. In Cardinal Health's case, that would currently equate to about $1.944 per share.

While Cardinal Health's payout ratio might seem fairly standard, it's worth remembering that Cardinal Health may be investing much of the rest of its net profits in future growth.

Cardinal Health's most recent dividend payout was on 14 July 2021. The latest dividend was paid out to all shareholders who bought their shares by 29 June 2021 (the "ex-dividend date").

Have Cardinal Health's shares ever split?

Cardinal Health's shares were split on a 3:2 basis on 22 April 2001. So if you had owned 2 shares the day before before the split, the next day you'd have owned 3 shares. This wouldn't directly have changed the overall worth of your Cardinal Health shares – just the quantity. However, indirectly, the new 33.3% lower share price could have impacted the market appetite for Cardinal Health shares which in turn could have impacted Cardinal Health's share price.

Cardinal Health share price volatility

Over the last 12 months, Cardinal Health's shares have ranged in value from as little as US$43.4443 up to US$62.4688. A popular way to gauge a stock's volatility is its "beta".

Beta is a measure of a share's volatility in relation to the market. The market (NYSE average) beta is 1, while Cardinal Health's is 1.0777. This would suggest that Cardinal Health's shares are a little bit more volatile than the average for this exchange and represent, relatively-speaking, a slightly higher risk (but potentially also market-beating returns).

Cardinal Health overview

Cardinal Health, Inc. operates as an integrated healthcare services and products company in the United States and internationally. It provides customized solutions for hospitals, healthcare systems, pharmacies, ambulatory surgery centers, clinical laboratories, and physician offices. The company operates through two segments, Pharmaceutical and Medical. The Pharmaceutical segment distributes branded and generic pharmaceutical, specialty pharmaceutical, and over-the-counter healthcare and consumer products. It also provides services to pharmaceutical manufacturers and healthcare providers for specialty pharmaceutical products; operates nuclear pharmacies and radiopharmaceutical manufacturing facilities; and offers pharmacy management services to hospitals, as well as medication therapy management and patient outcomes services to hospitals, other healthcare providers, and payers. In addition, this segment repackages generic pharmaceuticals and over-the-counter healthcare products. The Medical segment manufactures, sources, and distributes Cardinal Health branded medical, surgical, and laboratory products. It also provides incontinence, nutritional delivery, wound care, cardiovascular, and endovascular products; single-use surgical drapes, gowns and apparel, and fluid suction and collection systems; urology products; operating room supplies; and electrode products. In addition, this segment distributes a range of national brand products, including medical, surgical, and laboratory products; and provides supply chain services and solutions to hospitals, ambulatory surgery centers, clinical laboratories, and other healthcare providers. Cardinal Health, Inc. was founded in 1979 and is headquartered in Dublin, Ohio.

Frequently asked questions

• What percentage of Cardinal Health is owned by insiders or institutions?

  Currently 0.17% of Cardinal Health shares are held by insiders and 87.389% by institutions.

• When does the fiscal year end for Cardinal Health?

  Cardinal Health's fiscal year ends in June.

• Where is Cardinal Health based?

  Cardinal Health's address is: 7000 Cardinal Place, Dublin, OH, United States, 43017

• What is Cardinal Health's ISIN number?

  Cardinal Health's international securities identification number is: US14149Y1082

• What is Cardinal Health's CUSIP number?

  Cardinal Health's Committee on Uniform Securities Identification Procedures number is: 14149Y108