# How Cardinal Health (CAH) compares with the whole market and its popular alternatives

> Source: EasyCompare research, https://easycompare.io/research/cah
> Data as of October 20, 2026. Total returns include reinvested dividends. Past performance does not predict future results; nothing here is investment advice.

Built by QuantCommons' quantitative engine, this page is about relative opportunity, not data on CAH alone. It places CAH (Cardinal Health, Inc.) against 8 popular alternatives, its neighboring categories and the entire market of over 10,000 U.S.-listed stocks and ETFs, and surfaces what has done better on consistent outperformance, return for the risk taken, behavior in real market crashes and diversification. The result is a clearer view of where CAH stands in the market, and of the alternatives worth a closer look.

Period covered: CAH's full trading record, from October 1986 through September 2026. All returns include reinvested dividends. Data as of October 20, 2026.

## Key findings

- **Right now:** Over the past 6 months, CAH rose 22.5% against 9.1% for the S&P 500 and 11.2% for the Nasdaq 100. Both CAH and the S&P 500 are within a few percent of a record high.
- **Stock or market?:** CAH's 14.3% gain over the past 3 months far outran its industry: the health care distribution ETF IHF (iShares U.S. Healthcare Providers ETF) rose 7.1%. The S&P 500 rose 3.9%. Last month cut against the tape: CAH rose 14.3% while the S&P 500 fell 0.6%.
- **Past 1 to 3 years:** CAH has run far ahead of the market, rising 65.3% over the past year against 15.8% for the S&P 500 and 17.9% for the Nasdaq 100. The same gap shows up over 3 years (191% against 89.3%).
- **Long term:** CAH turned $10,000 into $44,900 over the past decade, against $42,100 in the S&P 500. CAH's 10-year return of 349% puts it ahead of 78% of the stocks worth at least $300 million with that much history. The S&P 500 returned 321%.
- **In a crash:** In the 2022 bear market, CAH held up better than HSIC (Henry Schein); only MCK (McKesson) and COR fell less.
- **Diversification:** CAH is a real diversifier: a correlation of 0.29 with the S&P 500 over 5 years and 0.30 with the total US market, less closely than 72% of stocks worth at least $300 million. Over 10 years CAH kept more of the market's gains than of its losses: 71% of the S&P 500's gains in rising months and 51% of its losses in falling ones, with a beta of 0.75.
- **Better options:** Nothing in the whole market did better on both counts: none of the 3,633 stocks and funds worth at least $500 million earned more than CAH with less volatility over the past 5 years.

## How much would $10,000 in CAH have grown?

This chart tracks a hypothetical $10,000 investment in CAH over the past 29 years, with dividends reinvested, alongside the same amount in the S&P 500, investments that ended ahead of CAH over the same span and CAH's popular alternatives, among those that traded for the entire period.

- $10,000 invested in CAH at the end of September 1997 would have grown to $113,257 by September 2026, less than the $132,907 it would have become in SPY, an S&P 500 fund.
- Five of the eight other investments on the chart ended ahead of CAH, and VLO finished highest, at $1,019,941.

## CAH at a glance

This section summarizes the key facts about the stock, its returns over periods from one to ten years and the risk it has carried, with dividends reinvested throughout.

- CAH's deepest decline since it began trading in 1986 was 66.1%, from June 2001 to September 2009. It took about four years from the low to climb back to its old high.
- CAH is trading within 1% of its all-time high.
- Over 29 full calendar years, CAH's best was 2000, when it returned 108%, and its worst was 2008, when it lost 39.6%. It lost money in 12 of those years.

- Type: Stock, Healthcare (Medical - Distribution)
- Trading since: October 17, 1986
- Market value: $60B
- Volatility (5 years): 24.7%; Sharpe ratio: 1.55
- Worst decline ever: −66.1%, from June 20, 2001 to September 2, 2009; back at its high by December 23, 2013

| Period | CAH total return |
| --- | --- |
| 1 month | +14.3% |
| 3 months | +14.3% |
| 6 months | +22.5% |
| year to date | +26.1% |
| 1 year | +65.3% |
| 3 years | +191% |
| 5 years | +479% |
| 10 years | +349% |

## CAH against the whole market

Where CAH ranks among every stock and fund, and what across the market has done better.

### How does CAH rank among all stocks?

This section ranks CAH on return, volatility, risk-adjusted return and worst decline against every stock worth at least $300 million with enough history.

- On return for the risk taken (the Sharpe ratio), CAH ranks in the top 1% of the 2,893 stocks worth at least $300 million.

| Measure | CAH | Rank |
| --- | --- | --- |
| 1-year return | +65.3% | 367 of 3,287 (top 12%) |
| 3-year return | +191% | 433 of 3,017 (top 15%) |
| 5-year return | +479% | 69 of 2,893 (top 3%) |
| 10-year return | +349% | 484 of 2,202 (top 22%) |
| Volatility, 5 years | 24.7% | 303 of 2,893 (top 11%) |
| Sharpe ratio, 5 years | 1.55 | 1 of 2,893 (top 1%) |
| Worst decline, past 10 years | −46.1% | 324 of 2,187 (top 15%) |

### What has beaten CAH on both return and risk?

Each dot is an investment, placed by how much it earned a year over the past 5 years (higher is better) and how much its price swung, its volatility (further left is calmer).

- None of the 3,633 stocks and funds worth at least $500 million earned more than CAH over the past 5 years with less volatility: nothing sits in the green region.

### Is there a better investment than CAH?

The table below lists investments that beat CAH over the past 5 years on at least one of these measures: a higher annual return with lower volatility, a higher annual return at similar volatility, a similar return with lower volatility, a higher Sharpe ratio with a smaller worst decline, a higher total return in most periods from 3 months to 10 years, or smaller losses in recent market crashes.

- Nothing in the whole market did better on both counts: none of the 3,633 stocks and funds worth at least $500 million earned more than CAH with less volatility over the past 5 years.

## CAH against its popular alternatives

The investments people most often weigh against CAH, compared period by period and year by year.

### How do CAH's risk and return compare with its alternatives?

This map plots each investment's annual return over the past 5 years against its volatility, the size of its typical price swings.

- None of the eight popular alternatives earned more than CAH over the past 5 years with smaller price swings, so every higher return on the map came with a bumpier ride.
- Five of the eight popular alternatives earned less than CAH over the past 5 years while swinging more, the weaker corner of the map.
- Over the past 5 years, CAH returned 42.1% a year, more than the S&P 500's 12.7%, with higher volatility (24.7% against 17.1%).

### Has CAH consistently beaten its popular alternatives?

This section compares CAH with the investments people most often weigh against it, checking each one over eight periods from one month to ten years.

- None of the eight popular alternatives outperformed CAH in at least 3 of 5 short-term and 2 of 3 long-term timeframes. The closest was MCK.

| Investment | 1Y return | 3Y return | 5Y return | 10Y return | Periods ahead of CAH | Verdict | Sharpe |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| CAH: Cardinal Health, Inc. (this page) | +65.3% | +191% | +479% | +349% |  |  | 1.55 |
| [MCK](https://easycompare.io/research/mck): McKesson Corporation | +31.3% | +131% | +413% | +586% | 2/5 short-term, 1/3 long-term |  | 1.44 |
| [COR](https://easycompare.io/research/cor): Cencora, Inc. | +5.7% | +86.5% | +195% | +406% | 0/5 short-term, 1/3 long-term |  | 1.07 |
| [BDX](https://easycompare.io/research/bdx): Becton, Dickinson and Company | +32.3% | +1.6% | +12.2% | +71.4% | 3/5 short-term, 0/3 long-term |  | 0.22 |
| [UNH](https://easycompare.io/research/unh): UnitedHealth Group Incorporated | +18.1% | −15.3% | +5.5% | +241% | 2/5 short-term, 0/3 long-term |  | 0.20 |
| [CVS](https://easycompare.io/research/cvs): CVS Health Corp. | +18.5% | +52.5% | +29.2% | +47.0% | 1/5 short-term, 0/3 long-term |  | 0.32 |
| BAX: Baxter International Inc. | +6.2% | −20.7% | −66.7% | −40.7% | 1/5 short-term, 0/3 long-term |  | -0.45 |
| [MDT](https://easycompare.io/research/mdt): Medtronic Plc | +1.9% | +43.6% | −8.8% | +46.7% | 0/5 short-term, 0/3 long-term |  | 0.03 |
| HSIC: Henry Schein, Inc. | +32.5% | +24.0% | +7.9% | +41.3% | 0/5 short-term, 0/3 long-term |  | 0.19 |

### How did CAH do year by year?

This table shows each investment's total return in every full calendar year since 1997, along with where CAH ranked among its popular alternatives each year.

- CAH finished ahead of the S&P 500 in 13 of its 29 full calendar years.
- Among its popular alternatives, UNH came out ahead of CAH most often, in 19 of the 29 years both traded.
- Ranked against its popular alternatives each year, CAH finished in the top quarter in seven of 29 years and in the bottom quarter in eight. In 2025, it ranked 2 of 9.

| Year | CAH | SPY |
| --- | --- | --- |
| 2025 | +76.3% | +17.7% |
| 2024 | +19.0% | +24.9% |
| 2023 | +34.1% | +26.2% |
| 2022 | +54.1% | −18.2% |
| 2021 | −0.4% | +28.7% |
| 2020 | +10.1% | +18.3% |
| 2019 | +18.0% | +31.2% |
| 2018 | −24.5% | −4.6% |
| 2017 | −12.7% | +21.7% |
| 2016 | −17.5% | +12.0% |

## Risk and diversification

How CAH has fallen, how it held up in crashes beside the S&P 500 and its popular alternatives, and what moves independently of it.

### What were CAH's worst declines?

A drawdown is the decline from a peak to the lowest point before a new high.

- In all three of CAH's worst declines, the S&P 500 held up better over the same dates.
- Not every decline was the market's doing: CAH fell 53.7% from February 1999 to March 2000, while the S&P 500 rose 8.7%.
- The slowest recovery came after CAH fell 66.1% from June 2001 to September 2009; it did not regain that peak until December 2013, four years later.

| Decline | Peak | Low | Back at the high | SPY over the same dates | Market event |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| −66.1% | June 20, 2001 | September 2, 2009 | December 23, 2013 | −5.4% | 2008 financial crisis |
| −53.7% | February 3, 1999 | March 7, 2000 | August 31, 2000 | +8.7% |  |
| −52.6% | July 8, 1987 | December 3, 1987 | March 8, 1989 | — |  |
| −48.9% | December 30, 2015 | December 24, 2018 | October 21, 2022 | +20.8% | late-2018 sell-off |
| −40.3% | October 1, 1991 | December 23, 1991 | October 12, 1993 | — |  |

### How did CAH do in stock market crashes?

This section measures how far CAH, the S&P 500 and each alternative fell from peak to trough during every major market crash since 2000.

- Among its popular alternatives, COR held up best, falling less than CAH in seven of the ten crashes they both traded through.
- CAH fell less than the S&P 500 in four of the ten crashes it has traded through. The clearest case was the dot-com bust, when CAH fell 36.1% and the S&P 500 fell 47.5%.

| Crash | Dates | CAH fall | SPY fall |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Dot-com bust | March 10, 2000 to October 9, 2002 | −36.1% | −47.5% |
| Global financial crisis | October 9, 2007 to March 9, 2009 | −57.9% | −55.2% |
| Flash crash | May 6, 2010 to May 7, 2010 | −1.8% | −1.5% |
| Euro debt crisis | July 22, 2011 to October 3, 2011 | −17.5% | −17.9% |
| China devaluation & oil rout | August 10, 2015 to February 11, 2016 | −15.9% | −12.8% |
| Volmageddon | February 2, 2018 to February 9, 2018 | −4.6% | −6.5% |
| Q4 2018 selloff | September 21, 2018 to December 24, 2018 | −25.5% | −19.3% |
| COVID crash | February 19, 2020 to March 23, 2020 | −32.1% | −33.7% |
| 2022 bear market | January 4, 2022 to October 12, 2022 | −21.0% | −24.5% |
| SVB / regional bank stress | March 8, 2023 to March 13, 2023 | −3.5% | −3.4% |

### How closely does CAH move with the S&P 500?

Upside capture measures how much of the S&P 500's gains an investment kept in the months the market rose, and downside capture how much of its losses it took in the months the market fell.

- Over the past 10 years, CAH captured 71% of the S&P 500's gains in rising months and 51% of its losses in falling months, with a beta of 0.75. That is a defensive profile: it gave up some of the market's upside in exchange for smaller losses.
- Only MCK had a higher capture ratio (upside capture divided by downside capture) than CAH's 1.40, out of eight popular alternatives with the same record.
- MCK took just 27% of the S&P 500's losses, against 51% for CAH, while still keeping 72% of its gains.

Measured over the past 10 years of monthly returns against SPY.

| Investment | Upside capture | Downside capture | Beta |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| CAH: Cardinal Health, Inc. (this page) | 71.0% | 51.0% | 0.75 |
| [MCK](https://easycompare.io/research/mck): McKesson Corporation | 72.0% | 27.0% | 0.56 |
| [COR](https://easycompare.io/research/cor): Cencora, Inc. | 80.0% | 58.0% | 0.56 |
| [BDX](https://easycompare.io/research/bdx): Becton, Dickinson and Company | 53.0% | 77.0% | 0.48 |
| [UNH](https://easycompare.io/research/unh): UnitedHealth Group Incorporated | 81.0% | 82.0% | 0.70 |
| [CVS](https://easycompare.io/research/cvs): CVS Health Corp. | 59.0% | 99.0% | 0.70 |
| BAX: Baxter International Inc. | 45.0% | 125% | 0.64 |
| [MDT](https://easycompare.io/research/mdt): Medtronic Plc | 62.0% | 105% | 0.68 |
| HSIC: Henry Schein, Inc. | 72.0% | 124% | 0.85 |

### What diversifies CAH?

Correlation measures how closely two investments move together, on a scale from 1 (in lockstep) through 0 (unrelated) to -1 (in opposite directions).

- Moving a fifth of the money in CAH into SMH would have cut the portfolio's volatility by 13% over the past 5 years and raised its annual return (+37.8% for CAH alone, +39.4% for the mix).
- FIX made money in nine of the 12 calendar years in which CAH lost money.
- Among large ETFs, LVHI, DXJ and EMLP have moved largely independently of CAH over the past 5 years, with correlations of 0.41 or lower, and each still earned a positive 5-year return.

| Investment | Correlation with CAH | 5Y return | Volatility | Sharpe | Rose in CAH's 12 down years |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| LVHI: Franklin International Low Volatility High Dividend Index ETF | 0.33 | +119% | 11.1% | 1.48 | 2 of 12 |
| DXJ: WisdomTree Japan Hedged Equity Fund | 0.39 | +225% | 19.1% | 1.34 | 4 of 12 |
| EMLP: First Trust North American Energy Infrastructure Fund | 0.41 | +101% | 14.5% | 1.04 | 3 of 12 |
| HDV: iShares Core High Dividend ETF | 0.34 | +83.3% | 13.0% | 1.00 | 3 of 12 |
| [SMH](https://easycompare.io/research/smh): VanEck Semiconductor ETF | 0.12 | +323% | 36.9% | 0.97 | 5 of 12 |
| DBEF: Xtrackers MSCI EAFE Hedged Equity ETF | 0.39 | +85.0% | 13.8% | 0.96 | 3 of 12 |
| [GLD](https://easycompare.io/research/gld): SPDR Gold Shares | 0.04 | +126% | 18.9% | 0.96 | 6 of 12 |
| SPMO: Invesco S&P 500 Momentum ETF | 0.27 | +136% | 20.8% | 0.93 | 3 of 12 |

## Common questions

### What was CAH's worst drawdown?

CAH's deepest decline since it began trading in 1986 was 66.1%, from June 2001 to September 2009. It took about four years from the low to climb back to its old high.

### What were CAH's best and worst years?

Over 29 full calendar years, CAH's best year was 2000, when it returned 108%. Its worst was 2008, with a return of -39.6%.

### Is there a better investment than CAH?

Nothing in the whole market did better on both counts: none of the 3,633 stocks and funds worth at least $500 million earned more than CAH with less volatility over the past 5 years.

### Is CAH more volatile than the S&P 500?

Yes. CAH's volatility over the past 5 years was 24.7%, 1.4 times the S&P 500's 17.1%. Volatility measures how widely returns swing around their average: in roughly two years out of three, CAH's return lands within 24.7% of its average, either way. The higher it is, the rougher the ride and the harder it is to hold through a slump.

### What is CAH's Sharpe ratio?

CAH's Sharpe ratio over the past 5 years was 1.55, against 0.79 for the S&P 500, so CAH earned more for each unit of risk than an index fund did. The Sharpe ratio is the return earned above cash for each unit of volatility: two investments with the same return are not equal if one got there with far bigger swings.

### How correlated is CAH with the S&P 500?

Over the past 5 years, CAH's monthly returns had a correlation of 0.29 with the S&P 500. Correlation runs from 1 (moving in lockstep) through 0 (unrelated) to −1 (moving in opposite directions). They are only loosely linked, which makes it a real diversifier next to an index fund. In the table, the correlation column measures each option against CAH instead: the lower it is, the more that option would diversify a CAH holding.

### What are the best alternatives to CAH?

None of the eight popular alternatives we compared outperformed CAH in at least 3 of 5 short-term and 2 of 3 long-term timeframes, which says more about CAH's strength than about its alternatives.

### Did CAH outperform the S&P 500?

CAH finished ahead of the S&P 500 (SPY) in 13 of 29 full calendar years. In 2025, it returned +76.3%, against +17.7% for the index.

### How did CAH do in stock market crashes?

CAH fell less than the S&P 500 (SPY) in four of the ten major crashes it has traded through, and further in three. The clearest case was the dot-com bust, when CAH fell 36.1% and the S&P 500 fell 47.5%.

### What diversifies CAH?

These had a low correlation with CAH over the past 5 years and still earned a positive 5-year return: among large ETFs, LVHI (correlation 0.33), DXJ (correlation 0.39) and EMLP (correlation 0.41); among large stocks, CLS (correlation 0.07), FIX (correlation 0.19) and MCK (correlation 0.48). A correlation near zero means the two have moved largely independently.

## More research

- [McKesson (MCK) Performance, Alternatives and Market Rank](https://easycompare.io/research/mck)
- [Cencora (COR) Performance, Alternatives and Market Rank](https://easycompare.io/research/cor)
- [Becton, Dickinson and Company (BDX) Performance, Alternatives and Market Rank](https://easycompare.io/research/bdx)
- [UnitedHealth Group (UNH) Performance, Alternatives and Market Rank](https://easycompare.io/research/unh)
- [CVS Health (CVS) Performance, Alternatives and Market Rank](https://easycompare.io/research/cvs)
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## Explore further

- Full page with charts: https://easycompare.io/research/cah
- All research pages: https://easycompare.io/llms.txt
- Compare the entire market against CAH live: https://betterthanspy.com/?b=CAH&utm_source=easycompare&utm_medium=research