Forensic Analysis · Trading Companies & Distributors · as of Aug 11, 2026

Cardinal Health Inc (CAH)

A forensic read on Cardinal Health Inc built from its complete SEC filings — financial-health screens, earnings quality, red flags and a price-aware rating. Reproducible math, not opinion.

D · Weak — demands caution

Forensic grade

Distress

Financial health

1.1

Distress distance

Clean

Earnings quality

Forensic signals

36.0

P / E (ttm)

$55.6B

Market cap

0.86%

Dividend yield

-1.9%

Revenue growth

This free snapshot doesn't read filing or proxy text, so the auditor-quality and governance checks that can lower a grade were not evaluated (red flags, auditor quality, say on pay, board independence). Those checks only ever lower a grade, so the full analysis can land below the grade above but never above it — treat it as the most favourable reading, not the settled one.

Cardinal Health Inc earns a D (Weak — demands caution) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads 1.1, placing it in the Distress zone. 2 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by goodwill impairments.

What the filings flag

$4.0B

FY2022–FY2024

Goodwill impairments. Took $4.0B of goodwill writedowns across 3 years (FY2022 ($2.1B), FY2023 ($1.2B), FY2024 ($675M)) — about 1634% of net income over the span. A large writedown means an acquisition turned out worth far less than was paid — a real mark against M&A discipline.

n/m (sign flip)

FY2024→FY2025

Accruals ratio (% of NOA). Net operating assets flipped from negative to positive FY2024→FY2025 (FY2024 $-3254.0M to FY2025 $+1872.0M) — the standard accruals ratio divides by the average of the two, which collapses toward zero right as the sign changes, so the resulting percentage is a denominator artifact, not a real accrual measurement. Treat this as a structural balance-sheet shift to understand on its own terms rather than a clean or dirty accruals read.

Key fundamentals

Latest Revenue$222.58B

Revenue Growth YoY-1.9%

Revenue CAGR (3yr)+7.1%

Net Margin0.7%

Free Cash Flow$1.85B

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Data from SEC EDGAR public filings · metrics as of Aug 11, 2026. Forensic signals flag probability, not certainty.