CAH Historical PE Ratio Notes

— Cardinal Health (CAH) is a major player in the healthcare industry, operating as both a distributor of pharmaceuticals & medical products and as a provider of integrated healthcare solutions. The company acts as a key intermediary between drug manufacturers, hospitals, pharmacies, and clinics, efficiently supplying medicines, surgical products, & other essentials across the United States and internationally. Because Cardinal Health's core business is distribution, it traditionally operates on thin margins, facing competitive pressures and frequent industry changes such as healthcare regulation shifts, drug pricing trends, and evolving relationships with suppliers & customers. These factors heavily influence CAH's earnings stability & growth prospects, which in turn impact the historical price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio. Historically, the market has often assigned CAH a lower P/E ratio compared to high-growth or tech companies, given perceived risks and slower earnings growth associated with distribution businesses. When reviewing CAH's historical P/E ratio, consider how external events (opioid litigation, changes in healthcare policy, or supply chain disruptions) affected investor sentiment & earnings volatility, causing the market to periodically revalue the stock. This context is key for interpreting shifts in its historical valuation metrics.

On this page we presented the CAH Historical PE Ratio information for Cardinal Health' stock. The average CAH historical PE based on using the annualized quarterly earnings result at each measurement period (for the "E" in the PE calculation; and the closing price on earnings date as the "P") is 14.0. Meanwhile, using the trailing twelve month (TTM) quarterly earnings result as our method of calculation the "E" value at each measurement period, the average CAH historical PE based on this TTM earnings result method is 14.4.

Let's now compare this CAH historical PE result, against the recent PE: when this page was posted on 9/4/2026, the most recent closing price for CAH had been 247.18, and the most recent quarterly earnings result, annualized, was 11.64. Meanwhile, the most recent TTM earnings summed to 11.26. From these numbers, we calculate the recent CAH PE on 9/4/2026 based on annualized quarterly EPS was 21.2. Based on CAH's history, that recent PE is elevated relative to the historical average, with the recent PE 51.4% higher than the historical average PE across our data set for Cardinal Health. Looking at the recent CAH PE on 9/4/2026 based on TTM EPS, we calculate the ratio at 22.0. Based on CAH's history, that recent PE is elevated relative to the historical average, with the recent PE 52.8% higher than the historical average PE across our Cardinal Health data set with TTM EPS used in the calculation at each period.

Another interesting CAH historical PE Ratio calculation we look at is to take the median earnings per share of the last four quarters for CAH, and then annualize the resulting value... with that annualized number then being used in the PE calculation. To walk through this math for CAH, we start with the past four EPS numbers and we first sort them from lowest to highest: 2.55, 2.63, 2.91, and 3.17. We then toss out the highest and lowest result, and then take the average of those two middle numbers — 2.63 and 2.91 — which gives us the median of 2.77. Basically the way to think about this 2.77 number is this: for the trailing four earnings reports, 2.77 marks the "middle ground" number where CAH has reported a value higher than 2.77 half the time, and has reported a value lower than 2.77 half the time. Annualizing that median value then gets us to 11.08/share, which we use as the denominator in our next PE calculation. With 247.18 as the numerator (as of 9/4/2026), the calculation is then 247.18 / 11.08 = 22.3 as the CAH PE ratio as of 9/4/2026, based on that annualized median value we calculated.

For self directed investors doing their due diligence on CAH or any other given stock, valuation analysis for CAH can greatly benefit from studying the past earnings and resulting PE calculations. This exercise can help inform an analysis as to whether the past earnings trajectory and current versus historical PE ratios justify the current stock value.

That's why we bring you HistoricalPERatio.com to make it easy for investors to investigate Cardinal Health PE history or the past PE information for any stock in our coverage universe. And in your continued research we hope you will be sure to check out the further links included for earnings surprises history (beat/miss data) as well as next earnings dates for CAH. Thanks for visiting, and the next time you need to research CAH Historical PE Ratio or the ratio for another stock, we hope you'll think of our site, as your go-to historical PE ratio research resource of choice.