Cardinal Health dividend: cash coverage and history
Cardinal Health currently pays $0.5158 per quarter and has raised annual dividends by $0.02 in each of the five years supplied. Cardinal Health's cash covered the dividend: it generated $5.2 billion of operating cash flow, spent $649 million on capital expenditures and paid $491 million in dividends in fiscal 2026.
How much does Cardinal Health pay shareholders over time?
Dividends rise cautiously in the base case. The current quarterly rate is $0.5158, and the company has raised annual dividends by $0.02 in each of the five years supplied. The base case pays $2.07 in the first window and $2.11 in the second. It reaches $2.15 in the final window, allowing for debt, settlement obligations and uneven cash conversion.
| Jun 2026 | Jun 2025 | Jun 2024 | Jun 2023 | Jun 2022 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | 254,248 | 222,578 | 226,827 | 204,979 | 181,326 |
| EPS, diluted | 7.23 | 6.45 | 3.45 | 1.26 | -3.37 |
| Dividend per share | 2.05 | 2.03 | 2.01 | 1.99 | 1.97 |
Does Cardinal Health's cash cover its dividend?
Cardinal generated $5.2 billion of operating cash flow in fiscal 2026, but spent $1.9 billion on Solaris, $649 million on capital expenditures and $491 million on dividends. The stock’s past valuation matters because the market is paying for that future cash, not merely for sales.
The pattern is clear even without treating free cash flow as a dedicated acquisition fund. Cardinal paid regular dividends and repurchased shares, while acquisition spending exceeded internally generated cash in its heaviest spending year. Debt issuance helped bridge that gap, moving the company from net cash to net debt; it remained a net debtor after the following year’s cash generation.
| Jun 2026 | Jun 2025 | Jun 2024 | Jun 2023 | Jun 2022 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free cash flow | 4,525 | 1,850 | 3,251 | 2,363 | 2,788 |
| − Dividends paid | 491 | 494 | 499 | 525 | 559 |
| − Share buybacks | 1,358 | 765 | 750 | 2,000 | 1,000 |
| = Free cash flow not paid out | 2,665 | 579 | 2,002 | 1,229 | |
| Paid out, % of free cash flow | 40.9% | 68.1% | 38.4% | 106.9% | 55.9% |
What could change Cardinal Health's dividend?
The forecast moves toward the bear case if FY2027–FY2029 results show generic erosion, weaker GLP-1 demand or Pharma profit growth below guidance. GMPD profit that fades after the tariff benefit would reinforce that move. Working-capital reversals or settlement payments that constrain buybacks would further weaken per-share growth.
What is Cardinal Health's dividend yield today?
Revenue is not profit in this business. Cardinal buys medicines from manufacturers and delivers them to pharmacies, hospitals and other care providers. Most of each sales dollar belongs economically to the manufacturer, so Cardinal may keep only a small amount for distribution, services and operating profit. That makes its 0.2x price-to-sales ratio less informative than its margins, earnings and cash flow.
| Today (Oct 18, 2026) | |
|---|---|
| Share price | 254.06 |
| P/E, last 12 months (calculated) | 35.1x |
| Dividend yield (calculated) | 0.8% |
What this means. The price-to-book number is not meaningful because the company owes more than it owns, making its book value negative.