Cardinal Health Inc. (NYSE:CAH) shares jumped on Thursday after the company reported better-than-expected first-quarter 2027 earnings and issued an updated fiscal 2027 outlook.
First-Quarter 2027 Financial Results Beat Consensus
The healthcare-services company reported first-quarter adjusted earnings of $3.26 per share, beating the Street’s consensus estimate of $2.94.
Cardinal Health reported revenue of $67.513 billion, up 5% year over year, beating the analyst consensus estimate of $66.588 billion.
Adjusted operating earnings rose 17% year over year to $1 billion.
Segment Performance: Specialty Pharma Drives Growth Amid Medical Distribution Headwinds
Chief Executive Jason Holler said on an earnings call the Global Medical Products and Distribution segment showed stable performance with a focus on operational improvements and growth in the Cardinal Health brand, despite external challenges like high petroleum costs.
Revenue from the Pharmaceutical and Specialty Solutions segment increased 6% to $62.6 billion, driven by brand and specialty pharmaceutical sales growth from existing customers.
Global Medical Products and Distribution was approximately flat to the prior year at $3.2 billion. This was primarily driven by growth in Cardinal Health Brand, offset by lower distribution revenue.
The company said, “We continue to see healthy demand for our Cardinal Health brand products, with U.S. growth in the low to middle single digits for the quarter. Foreign exchange and distribution were headwinds, while on the cost side modest commodity pressure, primarily in transportation costs, was offset by tariff tailwinds.”
Raised Fiscal 2027 Outlook And Segment Forecasts
Cardinal Health raised fiscal 2027 adjusted EPS guidance from $12.40-$12.60 to $12.80-$13.00, compared with the Street estimate of $12.56.
The raised guidance reflects robust demand across the company’s Pharmaceutical and Specialty Solutions segment and strong operational execution.
For the Pharma segment, Cardinal Health continues to expect revenue growth of 3% to 5%, consistent with earlier guidance, but lifted its segment profit growth guidance to a range of 10% to 12% from the prior guidance of 8% to 11%.
For the Global Medical Products and Distribution segment, the company reaffirmed 2027 revenue growth of 2% to 4%.
The company said, “While we are not changing our financial guidance for GMPD for the year, we do note that sustained high petroleum costs, driven by the ongoing Iran conflict, are pushing GMPD segment profit toward the low end of our guidance range of $200 million to $220 million.”
CAH Price Action: Cardinal Health shares were up 5.75% at $276.99 on Thursday. The stock is trading at a new 52-week high, according to Benzinga Pro data.
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