Cardinal Health

On valuation, the picture is expensive. The owner-earnings multiple stands at 27.7×; owner earnings: the cash an owner could take out each year. The implied growth embedded in that price is around 11% a year, against analyst forecasts of 17%. The price, in other words, assumes less than the experts do.

Growth is solid; the safety picture is sturdy. The company scores 14/20 on our value-creation score: strong value creator.

No flags apply to this company at this time: accounts, balance sheet, and cash quality all pass. A clean bill of health is meaningful, not just the absence of a warning. This analysis describes numbers; it is not investment advice.