Key Highlights

  • Revenue rose 5% to $67.5 billion in the first quarter of fiscal 2027.
  • GAAP diluted EPS increased 27% to $2.38, while non-GAAP diluted EPS rose 28% to $3.26.
  • Non-GAAP operating Earnings reached $1.0 billion, up 17% from a year earlier.
  • The company raised its fiscal 2027 non-GAAP EPS outlook.

Cardinal Health (NYSE:CAH), a healthcare company, reported first-quarter fiscal 2027 results covering the period ended September 30, 2026. Revenue increased 5% to $67.5 billion, while earnings measures grew at a faster rate. Chief executive Jason Hollar linked the quarter to focused investments, disciplined operations and the diversity of the company's portfolio, and the company raised its fiscal 2027 non-GAAP Earnings Per Share outlook. The release presents a quarter in which profit growth outpaced sales growth, and the drivers of that gap are visible in the company's reconciliation tables.

The quarter's revenue increase of about $3.5 billion, from $64.0 billion to $67.5 billion, is larger in dollar terms than the entire operating earnings figure, which illustrates how thin the Margin on distributed products is relative to sales. For that reason, the company's earnings trends depend heavily on operating efficiency and cost control rather than on sales Volume alone.

Revenue Growth and Its Scale

First-quarter revenue reached $67.5 billion, compared with $64.0 billion in the first quarter of fiscal 2026, an increase of 5%. At that scale, a percentage gain represents a substantial dollar increase, and the company's revenue base means that small changes in margin can have a meaningful effect on earnings.

The release does not break down revenue by Business segment in its highlights section, so the relative contribution of each division to the increase cannot be determined from the summary alone. Readers seeking that detail will need the segment tables in the full earnings package.

Non-GAAP operating earnings of $1.0 billion exceeded GAAP operating earnings of $753 million by about $250 million, a gap the release attributes to items it excludes from its non-GAAP measures. Investors who focus on operating performance will generally use the non-GAAP figure, while those who want a fuller account of costs will look at the GAAP total.

Operating Earnings and Per-Share Results

GAAP operating earnings increased 13% to $753 million from $668 million, and non-GAAP operating earnings rose 17% to $1.0 billion from $857 million. The difference between the GAAP and non-GAAP growth rates reflects the items the company excludes from its non-GAAP measures, which the release reconciles in its financial tables.

GAAP Diluted Earnings per Share increased 27% to $2.38. Non-GAAP diluted EPS rose 28% to $3.26. The company attributed the per-share gain to higher non-GAAP operating earnings, a lower share count and a lower effective tax rate. The release names all three factors without quantifying each one, although the effective tax rate fell to 19.2% from 24.1% in the prior-year quarter.

Net Earnings and Tax Effects

Net earnings attributable to Cardinal Health rose 23% to $554 million, compared with $450 million a year earlier. Non-GAAP net earnings attributable to the company increased 24% to $759 million from $611 million. The gap between the GAAP and non-GAAP net earnings figures widened compared with the prior year, which points to larger excluded items in the current period.

The effective tax rate on a GAAP basis was 19.2%, while the non-GAAP effective tax rate also appears in the release's summary table. Because the tax rate changed materially between periods, readers comparing year-over-year results should account for the tax effect separately from operating performance.

The release does not restate the revised full-year figure in its highlights, so readers should consult the outlook table for the exact range against which the first-quarter figure can be measured.

Updated Fiscal 2027 Outlook

Hollar said the company's updated expectations for the remainder of the year supported an increase in its fiscal 2027 non-GAAP EPS outlook. The release frames the raise as following from the quarter's performance and from the company's view of the rest of the year.

The outlook revision is the primary forward-looking statement in the release. Investors comparing the first-quarter per-share figure of $3.26 with the full-year target will be able to judge how much of the year's expected earnings is already reflected in the first three months.

Outlook

Cardinal Health's first-quarter report combines revenue growth of 5% with earnings growth of roughly 17% to 28%, depending on the measure, alongside a raised full-year non-GAAP EPS outlook. Subsequent quarterly reports will show whether the lower tax rate and share count continue to support per-share results at the same pace as revenue.