Fiscal 2027 EPS guidance above long-term growth rate
Guidance · revenue to 4%
Cardinal Health reported strong Q4 FY26 results with 40% EPS growth, driven by robust pharma demand and a one-time tariff refund. The company provided a bullish FY27 outlook, with EPS guidance above its long-term growth target, citing continued strength across all segments and contributions from recent acquisitions. FY26 Q4 EPS was $2.91, up 40% YoY, but includes a $0.31 one-time benefit from IEPA tariff refunds.
Cardinal Health reported strong Q4 FY26 results with 40% EPS growth, driven by robust pharma demand and a one-time tariff refund. The company provided a bullish FY27 outlook, with EPS guidance above its long-term growth target, citing continued strength across all segments and contributions from recent acquisitions. FY26 Q4 EPS was $2.91, up 40% YoY, but includes a $0.31 one-time benefit from IEPA tariff refunds.
Guidance · revenue to 4%
Guidance · revenue to 4%
Guidance · revenue to 4%
Pharma segment continues to be the main growth engine, with FY27 segment profit expected to grow 8-11%.
The transcript does not discuss AI.
Management described a 'resilient demand environment' and 'supportive secular healthcare trends' across the enterprise. They expect 'strong demand' and favorable utilization trends to continue, but did not provide a quantitative measure of demand acceleration or deceleration.
Management expects fiscal 2027 capital expenditures of $700 million, investing in automation, supply chain technology, customer solutions, and platform capabilities to enable future earnings growth. They also highlighted continued deployment of automation and technology across their distribution network to drive efficiency gains and service performance.
Management expressed strong confidence in the business, highlighting record results, reaffirming long-term growth guidance, and emphasizing significant opportunity ahead.
“When you look at specialty, that 25% growth, the double digit growth this year, it's usually areas like refrigeration and freezing capabilities that tend to be more of the bottleneck.”
“So we're always looking at the bottleneck of that.”
“we now exclusively service nearly half the cell and gene market and approximately three quarters of the total market.”
“we expect the first quarter of fiscal 2027 to be roughly half of the Q1 fiscal 2026 result, driven by the impacts of both foreign currency and the impact of distributor purchase timing.”
“Should the conflict in Iran prove protracted, We would expect that to move us to the lower end of our profit guide for GMPD.”
| 지표 | 기간 | 범위 | 중간값 | 상태 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Capex | FY2027 | $0.7B | $0.7B | GUIDED |
| EPS | FY2027 | $12.40–$12.60 | $12.50 | GUIDED |
| Free cash flow | FY2027 | $3.5B–$4B | $3.75B | GUIDED |
| Revenue | FY2027 | 3%–5% | 4% | GUIDED |
| RevenueGMPD | FY2027 | 2%–4% | 3% | GUIDED |
| RevenueOTHER | FY2027 | 11%–13% | 12% | GUIDED |
| 제시 시점 | 지표 | 목표 기간 | 가이던스 | 실제 | 결과 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FY2026 Q3 | Free cash flow | FY2026 | $3.3B–$3.7B | $5B | Met / beat |
| FY2026 Q2 | Free cash flow | FY2026 | $3B–$3.5B | $5B | Met / beat |
Long-term extension with Kroger provides revenue stability for Cardinal Health's pharma distribution segment, reducing churn risk.
“the stability that comes with our successful customer renewal efforts in the past year, including a long-term extension with Kroger.”
… a couple of key assumptions. First, in our core pharma distribution, strong demand, but not the outsized demand we experienced periodically through fiscal year 26. Second, a headwind from the annualization of 2026 IRA price changes and the implementation of 2027 IRA price changes. We anticipate the 2027% impact to revenue growth to be generally consistent with what we observed in H2 of fiscal 26 and to have no adverse profit impact. Third, the stability that comes with our successful customer renewal efforts in the past year, including a long-term extension with Kroger. For planning purposes, we are assuming a consistent book of business. Fourth, in specialty, inclusive of all organic and already announced inorganic efforts, double-digit revenue growth, including contributions from new customers in our biopharma solutions business. On the profit line, we expect the pharma segment to deliver 8% to 11% growth. drivers include continued generic and brand volume strength and higher margin growth in specialty, both upstream and downstream. We do expect some generics benefit in fiscal 27 from new item launches, largely driven by fiscal 26 carryover items, as well as continued …
Acquisition of AdaptHealth's diabetes segment expands Cardinal's at-home solutions portfolio, contributing to growth in 'other' segment.
“our guidance includes the partial year impact of the announced tuck-in acquisitions of the diabetes health segment of Adapt Health”
… over the course of the year. We expect segment profit to deliver 15% to 18% growth in the year. These metrics are driven by the powerful secular trends our businesses are aligned to capture, leading to strong demand. We also expect benefit from continued operational execution of our fiscal 26 investments, while at the same time continuing to invest during the year in support of ROI-driven future growth opportunities. As a matter of clarity, our guidance includes the partial year impact of the announced tuck-in acquisitions of the diabetes health segment of Adapt Health and the recently completed tuck-in acquisition of Strive Medical, which are expected to add two percentage points of profit growth to the year to other. Moving below the operating line, we forecast interest and other expenses to be $240 million to $290 million, benefiting from our year-end high cash balances prior to deployment. We project our effective tax rate to be 19% to 20% for the year. All this together leads to the full-year enterprise-wide EPS guidance of growth of 13% to 15% off of the baseline. With respect to cash flow, we expect to generate between $3.5 billion and $4 billion in adjusted free cash …
Long-standing relationship with CVS spans distribution, Red Oak generic sourcing JV, and other services, indicating deep integration.
Hey, good morning, guys, and thanks for taking the question. I want to clarify one comment. I thought I heard you guys say you renewed and extended your largest customer, which I would assume would be your friends in Rhode Island. I was wondering if you could put any more color around that. And as it relates to that large customer, and to come back to Lisa's question, they've talked about a slowdown as it relates to 340B and a headwind as it relates to 340B. And my question there is just, how do you guys think about like the disaggregation of services that is threatened under a lot of the reform initiatives that could kind of, you know, it's either going to push you guys to either…
So, first of all, to be really clear, we were on the GMPD section when I highlighted the renewal of our largest customer. So, George, you might have been multitasking. You heard those words and just jumped on it. So, yes, that was GMPD. So as it relates to CVS, I'm not sure what all you were getting at there. But let me just kind of touch on that point since we're on this topic. Certainly, we have a longstanding relationship with CVS. We have a lot of strategic collaboration with them throughout the enterprise. You certainly know about the distribution arrangement, but we have a lot more strategically aligned with them that go outside of the timeline of that distribution agreement, whether that's Red Oak, the Averon Joint Venture and Biosimilars procurement, or the over-the-counter relationship and partnership that we have with IQ Purchasing. So we have a broad base of relationship with them. and you're commentating and asking about different impacts that our customers may see with some of these different programs. And I think the key is that they are, and I'm not talking about CVS, I'm just talking more broadly now. They are impacted, our customers are impacted in many different ways as the pharmacy, as the dispenser, as the retailer. Our role, our margin at 1% overall aggregate margins for the enterprise highlights that we play a very different role and we support them in ways to create value wherever we can. But with that said, ultimately they're taking on more of the risk and have more of the return as a result of the value that they bring. So we have a typical distribution margin for that part of our business. For other parts of our business, whether it's the other businesses or our service businesses within BioPharm Solutions, it's a very different model and very different margin profile where we take that on. You're asking about disaggregation. I'm not sure exactly which part of the business or your question was there. I keep going back to the role in which we play. We do more than just putting together different parts of the industry. physically moving product, taking on ownership risk, tens of billions of dollars of capital that's deployed in areas like inventory and receivables to make sure that these products have near flawless levels of service and quality. So I feel very good about our role. Of course, the model around it will always change. …
Completed acquisition of Strive Medical adds scale to Cardinal's at-home solutions business.
… trends our businesses are aligned to capture, leading to strong demand. We also expect benefit from continued operational execution of our fiscal 26 investments, while at the same time continuing to invest during the year in support of ROI-driven future growth opportunities. As a matter of clarity, our guidance includes the partial year impact of the announced tuck-in acquisitions of the diabetes health segment of Adapt Health and the recently completed tuck-in acquisition of Strive Medical, which are expected to add two percentage points of profit growth to the year to other. Moving below the operating line, we forecast interest and other expenses to be $240 million to $290 million, benefiting from our year-end high cash balances prior to deployment. We project our effective tax rate to be 19% to 20% for the year. All this together leads to the full-year enterprise-wide EPS guidance of growth of 13% to 15% off of the baseline. With respect to cash flow, we expect to generate between $3.5 billion and $4 billion in adjusted free cash flow in fiscal 27, driven by the growth of our businesses, maintaining a disciplined approach to working capital management, and the impact of …