CAHCardinal Health
Is it safe?
Elevated bankruptcy risk: a balance sheet under strain. Everything else is secondary until this clears.
Elevated financial-distress risk Altman Z-score, a bankruptcy-risk model from five balance-sheet ratios.
Reported earnings show no manipulation flags Beneish M-score, a forensic model that detects earnings-manipulation patterns (receivables outrunning sales, margins slipping, accrual-heavy profit).
High fundamental quality Piotroski F-score, nine pass/fail tests of year-over-year financial health across profitability, balance sheet and efficiency. 7 to 9 is strong, 0 to 3 weak.
Insiders were net sellers (-$59.6M, 90 days to Oct 8, 2026), selling is often routine.
Investment-grade balance sheet. A rule of thumb on leverage, not a credit rating.
Moderate price swings, typical volatility. Worst drawdown -46% · now 4% below its 52-week high.
Unless marked, from SEC EDGAR, as of Jun 30, 2025.
Against the whole market›
Percentile against every name Ryufin tracks. Higher is better; the tick marks the middle of the market. Context, not one of the checks above.
Where this answer is blind. Altman sits structurally low for utilities and pipelines; Beneish runs high for fast growers, since sales growth alone lifts it; banks and REITs are excluded.
Can CAH take a bad year?
Cardinal Health carries $6.25B of net debt at 1.90× EBITDA: a load its earnings can carry.
Net debt · as at Q2 2026 · under two and a half years of EBITDA, comfortable
- Net debt / EBITDA
- 1.90×
Net debt / EBITDA · 1.51× a year ago · the load is going up
- Altman Z-score
- 4.89
Altman Z-score · safe zone, above 3
- Interest cover
- 8.02×
Interest cover · operating profit covers the interest bill several times over
Details›
- Total debtQ2 2026
- $9.03B
- Cash and short-term investments
- $2.78B
- Net debt
- $6.25B
- EBITDA, trailing twelve months
- $3.29B
- Operating profit, trailing twelve months
- $2.53B
- Total debt / EBITDA
- 2.75×
- Annualised volatilitytwo years of daily moves
- 27%
- Worst drawdown on file
- −46%
- Below its 52-week high
- 4.4%
Balance sheet from SEC filings; drawdown and volatility from end-of-day closes; Altman Z from the filed statements.