Cardinal Health F4Q26 Quick Take: F4Q Beats Ex-Tariff Refund While Preliminary FY27 Guidance Ahead on Stronger Other Business Growth

Research evidence excerpt

J P M O R G A N

North America Equity Research

11 August 2026

Cardinal Health

F4Q26 Quick Take: F4Q Beats Ex-Tariff Refund While

Preliminary FY27 Guidance Ahead on Stronger Other

Business Growth

Neutral

CAH, CAH US

Price (10 Aug 26):$237.18

Managed Care and Facilities

This morning CAH provided upbeat F4Q26 results, with adj. EPS of $2.91 ahead of

JPMe/cons of $2.41/$2.42 and the company introducing FY27 adj. EPS guidance

of $12.40-$12.60, above current JPMe/cons of $12.00/$12.06. The F4Q beat was

driven by outperformance across segments, with PSS operating profit ahead of

expectations (accelerating to +21% reported growth vs +18% in F3Q26), Other

slightly below Street but above our model, and GMPD benefitting from ~$100M

of IEEPA tariff refunds (~$0.31 per the company presentation). We note that

excluding ~$0.31 in benefit from tariff refunds would still put adj EPS of $2.60

ahead of our/Street expectations, with some favorability from interest/other ($53M

vs JPMe/consensus $77M/ $76M) as well as tax/sharecount. In the context of

CAH’s relative valuation (~20x on consensus pre-earnings FY27 adj. EPS), we

believe an upbeat guide was the base case for most investors. On the 8:30am ET

call, we expect the focus to be on the moving pieces underlying management’s

preliminary FY27 guidance, as well as commentary on Pharmaceutical and

Specialty Solutions performance (similar to other pharmaceutical distributors, we

are encouraged to see sequential PSS operating profit growth acceleration). See

our takeaways below:

FY27 guidance is driven by stronger Other growth, lower interest expense

vs Street, with PSS slightly ahead. CAH introduced FY27 guidance for adj.

EPS of $12.40-$12.60 vs JPMe/consensus of $12.00/$12.06, driven by PSS

adj. operating income growth of +8% to +11% vs JPMe/consensus

expectations of +8.9%/+9.1%. The company also introduced Other profit

growth guidance of +15% to +18% vs JPMe/consensus of +11.7%/+12.4%.

Versus our model and consensus, it appears that lower interest expense

($240M-$290M vs JPMe/consensus of $333M/$335M) and GMPD ($200M$220M vs JPMe/consensus $201M/$193M) also contributed to the positive

FY27 guidance.…