Cardinal Health, Inc. (NYSE:CAH) Short Interest Up 8.7% in November

Cardinal Health, Inc. (NYSE:CAH) was the target of a large increase in short interest during the month of November. As of November 15th, there was short interest totalling 5,980,000 shares, an increase of 8.7% from the October 31st total of 5,500,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 2,100,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 2.8 days. Currently, 2.5% of the shares of the company are short sold.

Institutional Trading of Cardinal Health

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. State Street Corp boosted its stake in Cardinal Health by 4.6% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 14,177,641 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,566,913,000 after buying an additional 627,253 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in Cardinal Health by 0.7% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 5,749,859 shares of the company’s stock worth $633,298,000 after buying an additional 42,082 shares during the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. boosted its stake in Cardinal Health by 4.7% during the third quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 4,290,650 shares of the company’s stock worth $474,203,000 after buying an additional 191,568 shares during the last quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Cardinal Health by 5.1% during the second quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 1,759,299 shares of the company’s stock worth $172,974,000 after buying an additional 85,247 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Renaissance Technologies LLC boosted its stake in Cardinal Health by 7.1% during the second quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 1,683,447 shares of the company’s stock worth $165,517,000 after buying an additional 111,137 shares during the last quarter. 87.17% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Cardinal Health Stock Up 1.4 %

Shares of Cardinal Health stock traded up $1.78 on Wednesday, reaching $125.05. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 878,513 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,100,338. The company has a market capitalization of $30.26 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.98, a PEG ratio of 1.53 and a beta of 0.61. Cardinal Health has a 52-week low of $93.17 and a 52-week high of $126.23. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $115.43 and a 200-day moving average price of $107.16.

Cardinal Health (NYSE:CAH) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Friday, November 1st. The company reported $1.88 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.62 by $0.26. The business had revenue of $52.28 billion during 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 business’s revenue was down 4.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.73 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts forecast that Cardinal Health will post 7.82 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Cardinal Health Cuts Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, January 2nd will be paid a $0.5056 dividend. This represents a $2.02 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.62%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, January 2nd. Cardinal Health’s dividend payout ratio is presently 39.30%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have weighed in on CAH. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on Cardinal Health from $111.00 to $123.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 21st. StockNews.com lowered shares of Cardinal Health from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Sunday, November 3rd. Mizuho started coverage on shares of Cardinal Health in a research report on Wednesday. They set an “outperform” rating and a $139.00 price target for the company. Robert W. Baird upped their price target on shares of Cardinal Health from $130.00 to $137.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 15th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on shares of Cardinal Health from $95.00 to $101.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a report on Thursday, August 15th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Cardinal Health has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $124.58.

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.