Cardinal Health Reports Second Quarter Fiscal Year 2025 Results and Raises Fiscal Year 2025 Outlook

• Revenue decreased 4% to $55.3 billion; revenue increased 16% excluding the impact of the previously communicated large customer contract expiration
• GAAP¹ operating earnings were $549 million; GAAP diluted EPS was $1.65
• Non-GAAP operating earnings increased 9% to $635 million, driven by the Pharmaceutical and Specialty Solutions segment; non-GAAP diluted EPS increased 2% to $1.93
• Fiscal year 2025 non-GAAP EPS guidance² raised to $7.85 to $8.00, from $7.75 to $7.90
• Company announces the completion of its acquisition of 73% ownership of GI Alliance

DUBLIN, Ohio, Jan. 30, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Cardinal Health (NYSE: CAH) today reported second quarter fiscal year 2025 revenues of $55.3 billion, a decrease of 4% from the second quarter of fiscal year 2024. Second quarter revenue increased 16% excluding the impact of the previously communicated large customer contract expiration. Second quarter GAAP operating earnings increased 9% to $549 million and GAAP diluted earnings per share (EPS) were $1.65. Second quarter non-GAAP operating earnings increased 9% to $635 million, driven by the Pharmaceutical and Specialty Solutions segment. Non-GAAP diluted EPS increased 2% to $1.93, due to an increase in non-GAAP operating earnings and a lower share count, offset in part by an increase in interest and other expense due to financing impacts related to the recent acquisitions.

"We delivered strong second quarter financial results while taking significant strategic and operational actions to position us for future growth," said Jason Hollar, CEO of Cardinal Health. "Led by robust demand across our Pharmaceutical and Specialty Solutions segment, we are again pleased to raise our fiscal 2025 enterprise guidance."

Hollar added, "We are also pleased to announce the closing of our acquisition of a majority position in GI Alliance. GI Alliance, along with our recently completed Integrated Oncology Network transaction in support of our Navista oncology platform, enables our continued specialty growth and delivers a greater value proposition for providers and patients."

Q2 FY25 summary 

Segment results

Pharmaceutical and Specialty Solutions segment

Second quarter revenue for the Pharmaceutical and Specialty Solutions segment decreased 4% to $50.8 billion. Second quarter revenue increased 17% excluding the impact of the customer contract expiration, driven by brand and specialty pharmaceutical sales growth from existing and new customers.

Pharmaceutical and Specialty Solutions segment profit increased 7% to $531 million in the second quarter, driven by growth from BioPharma Solutions, including contributions from Specialty Networks, and a higher contribution from brand and specialty products. This growth was partially offset by the customer contract expiration.

Global Medical Products and Distribution segment

Second quarter revenue for the Global Medical Products and Distribution segment increased 1% to $3.2 billion, driven by volume growth from existing customers.

Global Medical Products and Distribution segment profit increased to $18 million in the second quarter, driven by cost optimization initiatives, partially offset by the write-off of uncollectible receivables in the WaveMark business³.

Other⁴

Second quarter revenue for Other increased 13% to $1.3 billion, driven by growth across the three operating segments: at-Home Solutions, Nuclear and Precision Health Solutions and OptiFreight Logistics.

Other segment profit increased 11% to $118 million in the second quarter, driven by the performance of OptiFreight Logistics and Nuclear and Precision Health Solutions.

Fiscal year 2025 outlook²
The company raised its fiscal 2025 guidance range for non-GAAP diluted earnings per share attributable to Cardinal Health, Inc. to $7.85 to $8.00, from $7.75 to $7.90. The company's guidance now reflects the impacts of the completed acquisitions of Integrated Oncology Network (ION) and its majority stake in GI Alliance.

The company updated fiscal year 2025 guidance for Pharmaceutical and Specialty Solutions segment profit to 10% to 12% growth, from 4% to 6% growth, driven by stronger organic growth within the segment and contributions from GI Alliance and to a lesser extent, ION. The company also updated its GMPD fiscal 2025 segment profit guidance to a range of $130 million to $150 million from the prior range of $140 million to $175 million, primarily reflecting the second-quarter write-off of uncollectible receivables in the WaveMark business.

The company updated expectations for interest and other expense to a range of $200 million to $230 million, from $140 million to $170 million, driven by the advanced completion of $2.9 billion in new debt financing and foregone interest income related to acquisitions.

Recent highlights

• Cardinal Health today announced the completion of its acquisition of a majority stake in GI Alliance. With over 900 physicians across 345 practice locations in 20 states, GI Alliance is the country's leading gastroenterology management services organization (MSO). The acquisition accelerates Cardinal Health's multi-specialty growth strategy.
• Cardinal Health completed its acquisition of Integrated Oncology Network in December. ION is a physician-led independent community oncology network that accelerates the development of Navista oncology alliance, providing additional capabilities supporting independent community practices and adding more than 100 providers delivering broad-reaching oncology and urology care across 10 states.
• Cardinal Health announced the start of routine production of actinium-225 (Ac-225) through its Center for Theranostics Advancement in collaboration with TerraPower Isotopes. Cardinal Health is the first company to offer the isotope at commercial scale, increasing access to theranostics and potential new cancer therapies.
• Cardinal Health announced that construction is underway for its new at-Home Solutions distribution center in Fort Worth, Texas. The facility is equipped with leading robotics and automation technologies and is anticipated to be fully operational in the summer of 2025.
• Cardinal Health's GMPD business announced the U.S. launch of its Kendall SCD SmartFlow™ Compression System, the next generation of the Kendall™ Compression Series offering an enhanced clinician and patient experience.
• Cardinal Health was named to Forbes' 2025 Most Trusted Companies in America list.

Webcast
Cardinal Health will host a webcast today at 8:30 a.m. EST to discuss second quarter results. To access the webcast and corresponding slide presentation, go to the Investor Relations page at ir.cardinalhealth.com. No access code is required. 

Presentation slides and a webcast replay will be available on the Investor Relations page for 12 months.

About Cardinal Health
Cardinal Health is a distributor of pharmaceuticals and specialty products; a global manufacturer and distributor of medical and laboratory products; a supplier of home-health and direct-to-patient products and services; an operator of nuclear pharmacies and manufacturing facilities; and a provider of performance and data solutions. Our company's customer-centric focus drives continuous improvement and leads to innovative solutions that improve people's lives every day. Learn more about Cardinal Health at cardinalhealth.com and in our Newsroom.

Contacts
Media: Erich Timmerman, [email protected] and 614.757.8231
Investors: Matt Sims, [email protected] and 614.553.3661

¹GAAP refers to U.S. generally accepted accounting principles. This news release includes GAAP financial measures as well as non-GAAP financial measures, which are financial measures not calculated in accordance with GAAP. See "Use of Non-GAAP Measures" following the attached schedules for definitions of the non-GAAP financial measures presented in this news release and see the attached schedules for reconciliations of the differences between the non-GAAP financial measures and their most directly comparable GAAP financial measures.
²The company does not provide forward-looking guidance on a GAAP basis as certain financial information, the probable significance of which cannot be determined, is not available and cannot be reasonably estimated. See "Use of Non-GAAP Measures" following the attached schedules for additional explanation.
³WaveMark is a business within the Global Medical Products and Distribution segment that offers a fully integrated SaaS platform to support digitally automated clinical supply chain solutions to improve patient outcomes through enhanced product visibility and predictive analytics.
⁴Other includes the following three operating segments: Nuclear and Precision Health Solutions (NPHS), at-Home Solutions and OptiFreight Logistics, which are not significant enough individually to require reportable segment disclosure.

Cardinal Health uses its website as a channel of distribution for material company information. Important information, including news releases, financial information, earnings and analyst presentations, and information about upcoming presentations and events is routinely posted and accessible on the Investor Relations page at ir.cardinalhealth.com. In addition, the website allows investors and other interested persons to sign up automatically to receive email alerts when the company posts news releases, SEC filings and certain other information on its website.

Cautions Concerning Forward-Looking Statements
This release contains forward-looking statements addressing expectations, prospects, estimates and other matters that are dependent upon future events or developments. These statements may be identified by words such as "expect," "anticipate," "intend," "plan," "believe," "will," "should," "could," "would," "project," "continue," "likely," and similar expressions, and include statements reflecting future results or guidance, statements of outlook and various accruals and estimates. These matters are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected, anticipated or implied. These risks and uncertainties include the risk that we may fail to achieve our strategic objectives, including the continued execution of the GMPD Improvement Plan, whether as a result of Cardinal Health Brand sales, ongoing inflationary pressures or the impact of possible tariffs on products we source or manufacture; competitive pressures in Cardinal Health's various lines of business, including the risk that customers may reduce purchases made under their contracts with us or terminate or not renew their contracts; our ability to manage uncertainties associated with the pricing of branded pharmaceuticals, including as a result of possible legislative action; risks associated with litigation matters, including an Department of Justice investigation focused on potential violations of the Anti-Kickback Statute and False Claims Act; the risk that events outside of our control, such as weather or geopolitical events, may impact demand for our products or may cause supply shortages that impact our cost and ability to fulfill customer demand; the performance of our generics program, including the amount or rate of generic deflation and our ability to offset generic deflation and maintain other financial and strategic benefits through our generic sourcing venture or other components of our generics programs; risks associated with recently completed and still-pending acquisitions, including risks arising as a result from our entry into new lines of businesses; the possibility that our at-Home reporting unit goodwill could become impaired due to changes to our long-term financial plan, increases in global interest rates or unfavorable changes in the U.S. statutory tax rate. Cardinal Health is subject to additional risks and uncertainties described in Cardinal Health's Form 10-K, Form 10-Q and Form 8K reports and exhibits to those reports. This release reflects management's views as of January 30, 2025. Except to the extent required by applicable law, Cardinal Health undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statement. Forward-looking statements are aspirational and not guarantees or promises that goals, targets or projections will be met, and no assurance can be given that any commitment, expectation, initiative or plan in this report can or will be achieved or completed. Cardinal Health provides definitions and reconciliations of non-GAAP financial measures and their most directly comparable GAAP financial measures at ir.cardinalhealth.com

Cardinal Health, Inc. and Subsidiaries

Use of Non-GAAP Measures
This earnings release contains financial measures that are not calculated in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles ("GAAP").

In addition to analyzing our business based on financial information prepared in accordance with GAAP, we use these non-GAAP financial measures internally to evaluate our performance, engage in financial and operational planning, and determine incentive compensation because we believe that these measures provide additional perspective on and, in some circumstances are more closely correlated to, the performance of our underlying, ongoing business. We provide these non-GAAP financial measures to investors as supplemental metrics to assist readers in assessing the effects of items and events on our financial and operating results on a year-over-year basis and in comparing our performance to that of our competitors. However, the non-GAAP financial measures that we use may be calculated differently from, and therefore may not be comparable to, similarly titled measures used by other companies. The non-GAAP financial measures disclosed by us should not be considered a substitute for, or superior to, financial measures calculated in accordance with GAAP, and the financial results calculated in accordance with GAAP and reconciliations to those financial statements set forth below should be carefully evaluated. 

Exclusions from Non-GAAP Financial Measures
Management believes it is useful to exclude the following items from the non-GAAP measures presented in this report for its own and for investors' assessment of the business for the reasons identified below:

• LIFO charges and credits are excluded because the factors that drive last-in first-out ("LIFO") inventory charges or credits, such as pharmaceutical manufacturer price appreciation or deflation and year-end inventory levels (which can be meaningfully influenced by customer buying behavior immediately preceding our fiscal year-end), are largely out of our control and cannot be accurately predicted. The exclusion of LIFO charges and credits from non-GAAP metrics facilitates comparison of our current financial results to our historical financial results and to our peer group companies' financial results. We did not recognize any LIFO charges or credits during the periods presented.
• State opioid assessments related to prior fiscal years is the portion of state assessments for prescription opioid medications that were sold or distributed in periods prior to the period in which the expense is incurred. This portion is excluded from non-GAAP financial measures because it is retrospectively applied to sales in prior fiscal years and inclusion would obscure analysis of the current fiscal year results of our underlying, ongoing business. Additionally, while states' laws may require us to make payments on an ongoing basis, the portion of the assessment related to sales in prior periods are contemplated to be one-time, nonrecurring items. Income from state opioid assessments related to prior fiscal years represents reversals of accruals due to changes in estimates or when the underlying assessments were invalidated by a Court or reimbursed by manufacturers.
• Shareholder cooperation agreement costs includes costs such as legal, consulting and other expenses incurred in relation to the agreement (the "Cooperation Agreement") entered into among Elliott Associates, L.P., Elliott International, L.P. (together, "Elliott") and Cardinal Health. These include costs incurred to negotiate and finalize the Cooperation Agreement and costs incurred by the Business Review Committee of the Board of Directors, formed under this Cooperation Agreement, tasked with undertaking a comprehensive review of our strategy, portfolio, capital allocation framework, and operations. We have excluded these costs from our non-GAAP metrics because they do not occur in or reflect the ordinary course of our ongoing business operations and may obscure analysis of trends and financial performance. The Cooperation Agreement expired in the second quarter of fiscal 2025.
• Restructuring and employee severance costs are excluded because they are not part of the ongoing operations of our underlying business and include, but are not limited to, costs related to divestitures, closing and consolidating facilities, changing the way we manufacture or distribute our products, moving manufacturing of a product to another location, changes in production or business process outsourcing or insourcing, employee severance and realigning operations.
• Amortization and other acquisition-related costs, which include transaction costs, integration costs, and changes in the fair value of contingent consideration obligations, are excluded because they are not part of the ongoing operations of our underlying business and to facilitate comparison of our current financial results to our historical financial results and to our peer group companies' financial results. Additionally, costs for amortization of acquisition-related intangible assets are non-cash amounts, which are variable in amount and frequency and are significantly impacted by the timing and size of acquisitions, so their exclusion facilitates comparison of historical, current and forecasted financial results. We also exclude other acquisition-related costs, which are directly related to an acquisition but do not meet the criteria to be recognized on the acquired entity's initial balance sheet as part of the purchase price allocation. These costs are also significantly impacted by the timing, complexity and size of acquisitions.
• Impairments and gain or loss on disposal of assets, net are excluded because they do not occur in or reflect the ordinary course of our ongoing business operations and are inherently unpredictable in timing and amount, and in the case of impairments, are non-cash amounts, so their exclusion facilitates comparison of historical, current and forecasted financial results.
• Litigation recoveries or charges, net are excluded because they often relate to events that may have occurred in prior or multiple periods, do not occur in or reflect the ordinary course of our business and are inherently unpredictable in timing and amount.
• Loss on early extinguishment of debt is excluded because it does not typically occur in the normal course of business and may obscure analysis of trends and financial performance. Additionally, the amount and frequency of this type of charge is not consistent and is significantly impacted by the timing and size of debt extinguishment transactions.

The tax effect for each of the items listed above is determined using the tax rate and other tax attributes applicable to the item and the jurisdiction(s) in which the item is recorded. The gross, tax and net impact of each item are presented with our GAAP to non-GAAP reconciliations.

Non-GAAP adjusted free cash flow: We provide this non-GAAP financial measure as a supplemental metric to assist readers in assessing the effects of items and events on our cash flow on a year-over-year basis and in comparing our performance to that of our peer group companies. In calculating this non-GAAP metric, certain items are excluded from net cash provided by operating activities because they relate to significant and unusual or non-recurring events and are inherently unpredictable in timing and amount. We believe adjusted free cash flow is important to management and useful to investors as a supplemental measure as it indicates the cash flow available for working capital needs, debt repayments, dividend payments, share repurchases, strategic acquisitions, or other strategic uses of cash. A reconciliation of our GAAP financial results to Non-GAAP adjusted free cash flow is provided in Schedule 6 of the financial statement tables included with this release.

Forward Looking Non-GAAP Measures
In this document, the Company presents certain forward-looking non-GAAP metrics. The Company does not provide outlook on a GAAP basis because the items that the Company excludes from GAAP to calculate the comparable non-GAAP measure can be dependent on future events that are less capable of being controlled or reliably predicted by management and are not part of the Company's routine operating activities. Additionally, management does not forecast many of the excluded items for internal use and therefore cannot create or rely on outlook done on a GAAP basis.

The occurrence, timing and amount of any of the items excluded from GAAP to calculate non-GAAP could significantly impact the Company's fiscal 2025 GAAP results. Over the past five fiscal years, the excluded items have impacted the Company's EPS from $3.49 to $18.06, which includes a $17.54 charge related to the opioid litigation we recognized in fiscal 2020.

Definitions

Growth rate calculation: growth rates in this report are determined by dividing the difference between current-period results and prior-period results by prior-period results.

Interest and Other, net: other (income)/expense, net plus interest expense, net.

Segment Profit: segment revenue minus (segment cost of products sold and segment distribution, selling, general and administrative expenses).

Segment Profit margin: segment profit divided by segment revenue. 

Non-GAAP gross margin: gross margin, excluding LIFO charges/(credits).

Non-GAAP distribution, selling, general and administrative expenses or Non-GAAP SG&A: distribution, selling, general and administrative expenses, excluding state opioid assessment related to prior fiscal years and shareholder cooperation agreement costs.

Non-GAAP operating earnings: operating earnings excluding (1) LIFO charges/(credits), (2) state opioid assessment related to prior fiscal years, (3) shareholder cooperation agreement costs, (4) restructuring and employee severance, (5) amortization and other acquisition-related costs, (6) impairments and (gain)/loss on disposal of assets, net and (7) litigation (recoveries)/charges, net.

Non-GAAP earnings before income taxes: earnings before income taxes excluding (1) LIFO charges/(credits), (2) state opioid assessment related to prior fiscal years, (3) shareholder cooperation agreement costs, (4) restructuring and employee severance, (5) amortization and other acquisition-related costs, (6) impairments and (gain)/loss on disposal of assets, net, (7) litigation (recoveries)/charges, net and (8) loss on early extinguishment of debt.

Non-GAAP net earnings attributable to Cardinal Health, Inc.: net earnings attributable to Cardinal Health, Inc. excluding (1) LIFO charges/(credits), (2) state opioid assessment related to prior fiscal years, (3) shareholder cooperation agreement costs, (4) restructuring and employee severance, (5) amortization and other acquisition-related costs, (6) impairments and (gain)/loss on disposal of assets, net, (7) litigation (recoveries)/charges, net and (8) loss on early extinguishment of debt, each net of tax. 

Non-GAAP effective tax rate: provision for income taxes adjusted for the tax impacts of (1) LIFO charges/(credits), (2) state opioid assessment related to prior fiscal years, (3) shareholder cooperation agreement costs, (4) restructuring and employee severance, (5) amortization and other acquisition-related costs, (6) impairments and (gain)/loss on disposal of assets, net, (7) litigation (recoveries)/charges, net and (8) loss on early extinguishment of debt divided by (earnings before income taxes adjusted for the eight items above). 

Non-GAAP diluted earnings per share attributable to Cardinal Health, Inc.: non-GAAP net earnings attributable to Cardinal Health, Inc. divided by diluted weighted-average shares outstanding.

Non-GAAP adjusted free cash flow: net cash provided by/(used in) operating activities less payments related to additions to property and equipment, excluding settlement payments and receipts related to matters included in litigation (recoveries)/charges, net, as defined above, or other significant and unusual or non-recurring cash payments or receipts.

SOURCE Cardinal Health, Inc.