CluenexCardinal Health CAH
Cardinal Health scores good on business quality (6.3 of 10). Here is why, in plain words, and what our sealed record shows.
Why it matters
- What Cardinal Health does
Cardinal Health distributes pharmaceuticals and medical products to hospitals, pharmacies, and healthcare providers at massive scale, generating $254.2B in revenue. The company is leaning into supply chain optimization and specialty distribution to expand its role in complex patient care.
- What it does best
Cardinal moves massive drug volumes efficiently, posting a revenue growth rate of 14.2% that outpaces peers like McKesson at 12.4%. This distribution scale creates massive barriers for new entrants.
- The main risk
Thin operating margins leave little room for error if pharmaceutical pricing pressures or supply chain disruptions intensify across its distribution network.
Quality, check by check
Scored against its own industry, from company filings.
Gross margin sits thin at 3.8% while operating margin is 1.3%, showing that scale drives massive top-line volume rather than wide per-unit profits.
Scale creates a distribution moat locking in healthcare providers, backed by a revenue growth ranking in the top quartile of its sector at the 78th percentile.
Revenue growth accelerated to 14.2% up from 222.6B prior, driven by strong pharmaceutical distribution demand.
Interest coverage sits at 9.4x while free cash flow surged to $4.5B, putting the balance sheet on firmer footing.
Insiders
Executives and directors, from SEC Form 4 filings we read ourselves. Open market trades only; grants, option exercises and pre-planned sales left out.
7 sold $59.6M outside pre-planned sales.
Our sealed record on CAH
Verdicts appear here 30 days after we publish them; members see today's. Each one is in the nightly ledger, fingerprinted the night it was made.
The first sealed verdicts appear here on Oct 11, 2026.
Questions
Cardinal Health scores good on the Cluenex quality check (6.3 of 10), measured against its own industry. Profitability is weak, moat strong, growth steady and financial health strong.
In the last 90 days of SEC Form 4 filings: 7 sold $59.6M outside pre-planned sales.
Nov 5, 2026.
See CAH today
- Today's verdict on CAH, and why
- Fair value with cautious, base and optimistic cases
- The exact price that would change the verdict
- Which stocks each signal names, the night it fires
Cite this page: Cluenex, “Cardinal Health (CAH)”, https://cluenex.com/stocks/cah/, data as of Oct 10, 2026.