Cardinal Health, Inc. (CAH)

FairStock Score: 42/100 — MIXED

Key Financials

AI Analysis

AI-generated, general educational analysis — not personal investment advice.

I look for businesses that earn high returns on capital and sell at a sensible price. Cardinal Health is a giant distributor, not a brand-name compounder. In fiscal year 2026, the year ended June 30, 2026, it reported revenue of $254.2 billion, net income of $1.7 billion, and diluted EPS of $7.23. A year earlier, revenue was $222.6 billion and diluted EPS was $6.45. The scale is impressive, but the profit margin is tiny. FairStock's numbers show TTM free cash flow of $4.5 billion and an 8.1% FCF yield, which is the most attractive part. However, at the close on 2026-10-13, FairStock calculates a P/E of 33.25 and EV/EBITDA of 17.19. For a low-margin distributor with ROCE of only 3.72%, that seems full. The Altman Z-Score of 1.66 and Piotroski F-Score of 6/9 suggest balance-sheet and financial-signal caution, while the 0.50 beta and 0.86% dividend yield are defensive but not exciting. FairStock classes it as a STALWART, citing 22.9% annual profit growth and 9.4% revenue growth over five years, yet the most recent filed results show much slower bottom-line progress. The moat is scale and distribution density, but that has not translated into high returns. I would want a wider margin of safety before calling this a bargain.

In plain English: Cardinal Health is a big middleman that buys and moves medicines and medical supplies to hospitals, pharmacies and clinics. The business is huge but earns only a small profit on each sale, and its latest filed fiscal year showed modest profit growth. At the recent price, the stock looks expensive compared with those profits, though it produces a lot of cash.

The full AI analysis, bull and bear case and key monitorables are in FairStock Pro.

Data as of 2026-10-13 close · note generated 2026-10-15 · model deepseek-flash

Sources (SEC EDGAR): fiscal Q2 2026 10-Q (period ended 2025-12-31) · fiscal Q1 2026 10-Q (period ended 2025-09-30) · fiscal Q3 2025 10-Q (period ended 2025-03-31) · fiscal Q2 2025 10-Q (period ended 2024-12-31) · FY2026 10-K (period ended 2026-06-30) · FY2025 10-K (period ended 2025-06-30) · FY2024 10-K (period ended 2024-06-30)

Fundamentals from company filings and market-data providers; prices are end-of-day, not real-time. AI-generated analysis is general and educational — not personal investment advice. Scoring methodology · Score test · Disclaimer