Cardinal Health (NYSE: CAH) reported strong third-quarter 2026 fiscal-year results in its April 30 earnings call, with CEO Jason Hollar noting the numbers demonstrate that the company is “building on the momentum we displayed over the past few years.”
“This quarter’s performance highlights the durability and resilience of our business and the team’s disciplined execution,” Hollar added. “Results reinforce our conviction in the company’s growth trajectory and ability to deliver long-term value creation.”
While the company’s largest division — pharmaceutical and specialty solutions — “continues” to lead the way for Cardinal Health, Hollar said, “Our other growth businesses — at-Home Solutions, nuclear and precision health solutions, and OptiFreight Logistics — continue to deliver robust results.
“Their sustained performance is a direct outcome of our continued strategic long-term investments in these areas, which are aligned with a favorable demand environment and positive secular trends in faster-growing areas of healthcare. The collective strength and sustained momentum across the enterprise, including our financial position, gives us the confidence to again raise our full-year outlook for fiscal 2026 and highlight our expectations for continued momentum in fiscal 2027.”
Total company revenue up 11%
Cardinal Health’s CFO, Aaron Alt, reported that total company revenue was up 11% to $61 billion. “This growth was driven by strong demand in our pharmaceutical and specialty solutions segment and in Other,” Alt said. “Gross profit grew 18% to $2.5 billion due to benefits from our acquisitions and segment performance.”
Alt said the business unit that includes at-Home Solutions “saw strong results. These businesses represent a key element of our long-term growth expectations. Segment revenue grew 31% to $1.7 billion, and segment profit grew 34% to $179 million. This performance was driven by robust demand across all three businesses and the acquisition of ADS [Advanced Diabetes Supply].”
Cardinal Health completed the ADS acquisition in April 2025.
“The integration of ADS into our At-Home Solutions business is progressing well,” Alt noted. “This combination has created a powerful platform for patients with chronic conditions that supports and can be supported by other parts of our business.”
Investing.com reported on April 30 that Cardinal Health fell short of Wall Street’s revenue expectations — $61.0 billion vs. a $62.11 billion expectation — which “led to a 4.78% drop in pre-market stock price, reflecting investor concerns.” Also on April 30, CNBC published an article saying Cardinal Health’s stock “is getting pummeled on mixed results.” The next day, CNBC published the story “Cardinal Health’s Sell-Off on Earnings Was an Overreaction. We’d Be Buyers.”
at-Home benefits from ongoing transition to home care
“In at-Home Solutions, we continue to see a strong demand environment fueled by the ongoing shift of care into the home,” Hollar confirmed. “To support the growing demand, we are investing to expand the capacity of our network, the breadth of our offering, and in new technology to drive efficiencies and customer experience.
“We are pleased with the integration progress of ADS, which now marks one year as part of Cardinal Health. We have successfully migrated ADS volume into our distribution centers, as well as onboarded nearly 1,000 new employees and nearly 500,000 new patients. This marks a significant operational achievement that positions us for enhanced efficiency and long-term growth.”
In response to an analyst’s question of ongoing performance in the Other division, Alt said, “We saw strong performance across all three of the growth businesses affectionately known as Other. Revenue was up 31%, profit was up 34%. Jason referenced the strong secular trends, the positioning, the competitive positioning we have, that’s contributing to good results within the business and indeed, lots of positive perspective on where those businesses are going to take us as we carry forward.
“Strong demand has also been a key part of why those businesses have succeeded the way they have. I would highlight a couple things. The core business within at-Home is doing well, and it has been reinforced by the ADS acquisition. The integration that Jason referenced earlier, it’s going very well.”
Alt added, “We had highlighted in an earlier earnings call that we had a plan with opportunities to overperform, and we continue to see the goodness coming from the at-Home business supported by the ADS acquisition. We pivoted from the integration of the supply chain, the distribution, to now being focused on the systems, the back office, and ensuring that we’re providing the best-in-class customer experience that we aspire to for the patients being served by our at-Home business.”
