First Citizens Bank & Trust Co. Increases Position in Cardinal Health, Inc. (NYSE:CAH)

First Citizens Bank & Trust Co. lifted its position in shares of Cardinal Health, Inc. (NYSE:CAH) by 20.1% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 3,031 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 508 shares during the period. First Citizens Bank & Trust Co.’s holdings in Cardinal Health were worth $358,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. State Street Corp lifted its holdings in Cardinal Health by 4.6% during the 3rd 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 lifted 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 purchasing an additional 42,082 shares during the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in Cardinal Health by 4.7% in the third quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 4,290,650 shares of the company’s stock valued at $474,203,000 after purchasing an additional 191,568 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in Cardinal Health by 2.3% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,474,625 shares of the company’s stock valued at $162,976,000 after purchasing an additional 33,388 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Brandes Investment Partners LP raised its holdings in Cardinal Health by 10.1% during the second quarter. Brandes Investment Partners LP now owns 1,315,316 shares of the company’s stock worth $129,439,000 after purchasing an additional 121,107 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 87.17% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

CAH has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Citigroup increased their target price on shares of Cardinal Health from $120.00 to $129.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, January 10th. StockNews.com lowered Cardinal Health from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Sunday, November 3rd. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on Cardinal Health from $127.00 to $136.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 17th. Bank of America raised Cardinal Health from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $132.00 to $145.00 in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Finally, TD Cowen raised Cardinal Health from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $130.00 to $144.00 in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $134.64.

Cardinal Health Stock Up 1.4 %

Shares of NYSE:CAH opened at $130.65 on Tuesday. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $121.57 and a 200 day moving average price of $113.42. Cardinal Health, Inc. has a 52 week low of $93.17 and a 52 week high of $131.00. The company has a market cap of $31.62 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.42, a PEG ratio of 1.57 and a beta of 0.63.

Cardinal Health (NYSE:CAH) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Friday, November 1st. The company reported $1.88 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.62 by $0.26. The firm had revenue of $52.28 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $50.90 billion. Cardinal Health had a negative return on equity of 56.56% and a net margin of 0.56%. The company’s revenue for the quarter 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. Analysts expect that Cardinal Health, Inc. will post 7.82 EPS for the current year.

Cardinal Health Cuts Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, January 2nd were issued a $0.5056 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, January 2nd. This represents a $2.02 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.55%. Cardinal Health’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 39.30%.

Cardinal Health Profile

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.