I kinda figured a day wouldn't go by when I couldn't find an appropriate candidate to discuss. Looking through the NYSE greatest risers...we find a lot of preferred and foreign issues. Almost wrote up MCD but their growth is rather anemic.
I like Cardinal Health and its record though. CAH is having a great day in an overall disappointing trading session. Currently, trading at $64.17 up $4.12 on the day or 6.86%.
According to CNN.Money, CAH "is a holding company that provides products and services to healthcare providers and manufacturers to help them improve the efficiency and quality of healthcare." Hmmm...now what exactly do they do?
Anyhow, they do one thing...make a lot of money! On April 23rd, 2003, Cardinal reported results for the third quarter ending March 31, 2003. Earnings per diluted share grew 29% to $.85, and operating revenues increased to $12.8 billion up 11%.
Looking at the 5 year report on Morningstar we see a very pretty series of bar graphs showing a 1998 revenue of $28.4 billion, 1999 at $32.7 billion, 2000 at $38.3 billion, 2001 at $47.9 billion, 2002 at $51.1 billion with $53.4 billion reported in the trailing twelve months.
Cardinal also generates a tremendous amount of free cash flow. In 2000 they generated $173 million, 2001 it was $531 million, 2002 up to $699 million, and $1.9 billion in the trailing twelve months.
Assets and liabilities are fairly well balanced....overall this is a very pretty company to consider an investment. The stock trades at a p/e of 23.13 and does pay a small dividend yielding 0.17%
I do not now own any shares of this stock nor am planning to buy any. This would be one I would love to add to my portfolio though!
Have a great weekend everyone. I have high school graduation to look forward to in my family! Bob