Cardinal Health (CAH) Competitors

Cardinal Health (NYSE:CAH) and McKesson (NYSE:MCK) are both large-cap medical companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, community ranking, risk, profitability, valuation, dividends, institutional ownership, earnings and media sentiment.

Which has more risk and volatility, CAH or MCK?

Cardinal Health has a beta of 0.63, indicating that its stock price is 37% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, McKesson has a beta of 0.52, indicating that its stock price is 48% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Do institutionals & insiders have more ownership in CAH or MCK?

87.2% of Cardinal Health shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 85.1% of McKesson shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.1% of Cardinal Health shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.1% of McKesson shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Is CAH or MCK a better dividend stock?

Cardinal Health pays an annual dividend of $2.02 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.6%. McKesson pays an annual dividend of $2.84 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.5%. Cardinal Health pays out 37.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. McKesson pays out 13.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. Cardinal Health has raised its dividend for 28 consecutive years and McKesson has raised its dividend for 17 consecutive years. Cardinal Health is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Which has preferable earnings and valuation, CAH or MCK?

McKesson has higher revenue and earnings than Cardinal Health. Cardinal Health is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than McKesson, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Company	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Cardinal Health	$226.83B	0.14	$852M	$5.36	23.69
McKesson	$308.95B	0.24	$3.00B	$21.84	27.37

Does the media prefer CAH or MCK?

In the previous week, McKesson had 20 more articles in the media than Cardinal Health. MarketBeat recorded 41 mentions for McKesson and 21 mentions for Cardinal Health. McKesson's average media sentiment score of 1.49 beat Cardinal Health's score of 1.29 indicating that McKesson is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Cardinal Health	18 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	3 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
McKesson	34 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	4 Neutral mention(s)	1 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Do analysts prefer CAH or MCK?

Cardinal Health currently has a consensus price target of $136.87, indicating a potential upside of 7.80%. McKesson has a consensus price target of $645.79, indicating a potential upside of 8.05%. Given McKesson's stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe McKesson is more favorable than Cardinal Health.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Cardinal Health	0 Sell rating(s)	4 Hold rating(s)	12 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.75
McKesson	0 Sell rating(s)	2 Hold rating(s)	13 Buy rating(s)	1 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.94

Does the MarketBeat Community favor CAH or MCK?

McKesson received 51 more outperform votes than Cardinal Health when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 74.33% of users gave McKesson an outperform vote while only 71.47% of users gave Cardinal Health an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Cardinal Health	Outperform Votes 922 71.47%	Underperform Votes 368 28.53%
McKesson	Outperform Votes 973 74.33%	Underperform Votes 336 25.67%

Is CAH or MCK more profitable?

McKesson has a net margin of 0.82% compared to Cardinal Health's net margin of 0.59%. Cardinal Health's return on equity of -59.57% beat McKesson's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Cardinal Health	0.59%	-59.57%	4.17%
McKesson	0.82%	-181.26%	5.34%

Summary

McKesson beats Cardinal Health on 17 of the 22 factors compared between the two stocks.