5 Safe Dividend Stocks to Buy Before 2023

2. Cardinal Health, Inc. (NYSE:CAH)

Dividend Yield as of August 3: 3.31%

Cardinal Health, Inc. (NYSE:CAH) is an Ohio-based multinational health services company that focuses on patient care while reducing costs. At the end of Q1 2022, the company had over $2.3 billion available in cash and cash equivalents and its total assets amounted to over $30.8 billion. The company’s free cash flow generation remained strong in FY21 at over $2 billion, up from $1.5 billion in 2020. Moreover, it reported over $2.4 billion in operating cash flow, compared with $1.9 billion in 2020.

On May 10, Cardinal Health, Inc. (NYSE:CAH) declared a 1% hike in its quarterly dividend to $0.4957 per share. Though the dividend growth is small, the company maintains a 36-year streak of dividend increases. As of August 3, the stock’s dividend yield came in at 3.31%.

In July, Morgan Stanley set a $70 price target on Cardinal Health, Inc. (NYSE:CAH) with an Overweight rating on the shares, as the company’s consensus expectations look more reasonable ahead of its Q2 results.

At the end of Q1 2022, 38 hedge funds in Insider Monkey’s database owned stakes in Cardinal Health, Inc. (NYSE:CAH), down from 39 a quarter earlier. The stakes owned by these hedge funds are collectively valued at $771.6 million. Cliff Asness and Richard Pzena were the company’s most prominent stakeholders in Q1.