Cardinal Health Is the S&P 500’s Worst Stock Today. Here’s Why.

Cardinal Health will acquire Solaris Health for around $1.9 billion in cash. (Dreamstime)

Cardinal Health was the worst performer in the S&P 500 Tuesday after the drug distributor reported mixed quarterly earnings and announced it had struck a multi-billion dollar deal to acquire Solaris Health.

Cardinal Health posted adjusted earnings of $2.08 a share for its fiscal fourth quarter, surpassing Wall Street’s consensus call for $2.04. Revenue totaled $60.2 billion, just shy of analysts’ forecasts of $60.9 billion and flat compared with last year.

The Dublin, Ohio-based company lifted its fiscal 2026 adjusted earnings guidance to between $9.30 and $9.50 a share from a previous range of $9.10 to $9.30.

Just before the earnings print, Cardinal Health announced it had agreed to the acquisition of Solaris, a leading urology management services organization, or MSO. Cardinal Health will provide around $1.9 billion in cash to its own MSO platform, the Specialty Alliance, to enable the acquisition and will own about 75% of the Specialty Alliance after the deal is complete.

Cardinal Health stock declined 10% Tuesday after the flurry of news, putting it on pace for its largest single-day percentage drop since 2021, according to Dow Jones Market Data. Shares had risen 33% for the year as of Monday’s close.

The Solaris acquisition is expected to close by the end of 2025, and Cardinal Health expects the deal to be “slightly accretive” to its adjusted per-share earnings within the first year.

Write to Nate Wolf at nate.wolf@barrons.com