CAH
Cardinal Health, Inc.
stock NYSE

No, people who exhibit the [14 characteristics of fascism](https://ratical.org/ratville/CAH/fasci14chars.html) are fascist. The GOP hits 12 of the 14. POTUS hits all 14. Democrats hit ~5.

Looking it further, I agree. Pandemics might even collapse insurers.

Still, if they don't collapse, thinking on a milder pandemic to covid, they may end up in a stronger competitive position. During covid, CI, UNH, and CAH had relatively low volatility and resilient margins.

**TL;DR: I bought 1000 USD of CI yesterday. Wanted to show my reasoning and checkbox exercise and see if appreciated.**
**Base thesis**
Longevity and potential pandemics are a main socioeconomical to what out for 2040. Both benefit the healthcare sector. I believe US-EU coverage and good dividend is quite important in companies.
**Stock Analysis/Base Thesis**
I reviewed CI, UNH, and CAH through Graham criteria (The Intelligent Investor, Security Analysis). You can see the breakdown in the table below.
**Self-critisism/Antithesis**
Insurance companies naturally have large liabilities, so a low finantial current ratio (current assets divided by current liabilities) is not automatically a red flag. Applying this mechanically penalizes insurers unfairly.
UNH failing a dividend 20-year streak but not necessarily an investment weakness.
CI risks: Regulatory pressure on insurers/pharma, medical cost inflation, political scrutiny on pharma and insurers.
**Final Check/Synthesis**
UNH is probably the best company, CI is probably the best stock at the current valuation. For a value investor.
**Note**
I am recently trying to lean on healthcare related stocks.Pharma is not my first choice to check due to my current exposure and risks related to patent risks.
**Table**
|**Graham Criterion**|**Cardinal Health (CAH) \[Service\]**|**UNH / ELV \[Pure Insurance\]**|**The Cigna Group (CI) \[Insurance/PBM\]**|
|:-|:-|:-|:-|
|**1. Adequate Size (>$2B in annual sales)**|Pass (\~$222B in revenue)|Pass (UNH \~$440B / ELV \~$175B)|Pass (\~$277B in revenue)|
|**2. Financial Condition (Current Ratio ≥ 2.0)**|Fail (Sits at \~0.94 due to thin-margin distribution model)|Fail (Insurance models inherently carry massive short-term claim liabilities)|Fail (Sits at \~0.82–0.85 due to typical insurance cash-management cycles)|
|**3. Earnings Stability (Positive earnings for 10 straight years)**|Fail (Impacted by GAAP net losses from legacy opioid settlements)|Pass (Both have generated highly predictable, positive net income)|Pass (Highly consistent, positive net income over the last decade)|
|**4. Dividend Record (20+ years of uninterrupted payments)**|Pass (38 years of consecutive increases)|Pass (Uninterrupted payments, though consecutive increases are < 20 years)|Pass (Paid uninterrupted token dividends for decades; structured quarterly increases started in 2021)|
|**5. Earnings Growth (>33% per-share growth over 10 years)**|Pass (Steady secular demand supports bottom-line growth)|Pass (Massive compounding driven by managed care expansion)|Pass (Substantial growth driven by its integrated Evernorth health services)|
|**6. Moderate P/E Ratio (Price-to-Earnings ≤ 15x)**|Fail (Currently trades at a premium P/E of \~36)|Partial (UNH sits around \~32x; ELV is much closer to Graham's realm at \~17.6x)|Pass (Currently trades at a very modest, value-tier P/E of \~12.3)|
|**7. Moderate P/B Ratio (P/E × P/B ≤ 22.5)**|Fail (Negative book value due to aggressive share buybacks)|Fail (Both trade at high premiums to tangible book value)|Partial / Near Pass (P/E of \~12.3 × P/B of \~1.84 yields \~22.6, hovering right on the boundary line)|

No, people who exhibit the [14 characteristics of fascism](https://ratical.org/ratville/CAH/fasci14chars.html) are fascist. The GOP hits 12 of the 14. POTUS hits all 14. Democrats hit ~5.

Looking it further, I agree. Pandemics might even collapse insurers.

Still, if they don't collapse, thinking on a milder pandemic to covid, they may end up in a stronger competitive position. During covid, CI, UNH, and CAH had relatively low volatility and resilient margins.

**TL;DR: I bought 1000 USD of CI yesterday. Wanted to show my reasoning and checkbox exercise and see if appreciated.**
**Base thesis**
Longevity and potential pandemics are a main socioeconomical to what out for 2040. Both benefit the healthcare sector. I believe US-EU coverage and good dividend is quite important in companies.
**Stock Analysis/Base Thesis**
I reviewed CI, UNH, and CAH through Graham criteria (The Intelligent Investor, Security Analysis). You can see the breakdown in the table below.
**Self-critisism/Antithesis**
Insurance companies naturally have large liabilities, so a low finantial current ratio (current assets divided by current liabilities) is not automatically a red flag. Applying this mechanically penalizes insurers unfairly.
UNH failing a dividend 20-year streak but not necessarily an investment weakness.
CI risks: Regulatory pressure on insurers/pharma, medical cost inflation, political scrutiny on pharma and insurers.
**Final Check/Synthesis**
UNH is probably the best company, CI is probably the best stock at the current valuation. For a value investor.
**Note**
I am recently trying to lean on healthcare related stocks.Pharma is not my first choice to check due to my current exposure and risks related to patent risks.
**Table**
|**Graham Criterion**|**Cardinal Health (CAH) \[Service\]**|**UNH / ELV \[Pure Insurance\]**|**The Cigna Group (CI) \[Insurance/PBM\]**|
|:-|:-|:-|:-|
|**1. Adequate Size (>$2B in annual sales)**|Pass (\~$222B in revenue)|Pass (UNH \~$440B / ELV \~$175B)|Pass (\~$277B in revenue)|
|**2. Financial Condition (Current Ratio ≥ 2.0)**|Fail (Sits at \~0.94 due to thin-margin distribution model)|Fail (Insurance models inherently carry massive short-term claim liabilities)|Fail (Sits at \~0.82–0.85 due to typical insurance cash-management cycles)|
|**3. Earnings Stability (Positive earnings for 10 straight years)**|Fail (Impacted by GAAP net losses from legacy opioid settlements)|Pass (Both have generated highly predictable, positive net income)|Pass (Highly consistent, positive net income over the last decade)|
|**4. Dividend Record (20+ years of uninterrupted payments)**|Pass (38 years of consecutive increases)|Pass (Uninterrupted payments, though consecutive increases are < 20 years)|Pass (Paid uninterrupted token dividends for decades; structured quarterly increases started in 2021)|
|**5. Earnings Growth (>33% per-share growth over 10 years)**|Pass (Steady secular demand supports bottom-line growth)|Pass (Massive compounding driven by managed care expansion)|Pass (Substantial growth driven by its integrated Evernorth health services)|
|**6. Moderate P/E Ratio (Price-to-Earnings ≤ 15x)**|Fail (Currently trades at a premium P/E of \~36)|Partial (UNH sits around \~32x; ELV is much closer to Graham's realm at \~17.6x)|Pass (Currently trades at a very modest, value-tier P/E of \~12.3)|
|**7. Moderate P/B Ratio (P/E × P/B ≤ 22.5)**|Fail (Negative book value due to aggressive share buybacks)|Fail (Both trade at high premiums to tangible book value)|Partial / Near Pass (P/E of \~12.3 × P/B of \~1.84 yields \~22.6, hovering right on the boundary line)|