(Reuters) – Cardinal Health lowered the full-year profit forecast for its medical segment on Thursday, taking the shine off the company’s upbeat second-quarter results and sending its shares down more than 5%.
The medical unit, through which Cardinal Health makes and distributes company-branded medical, surgical and laboratory products, has been struggling with rising transportation and labor costs as well as global supply chain constraints.
Cardinal said in a filing on Thursday that it expects these inflationary impacts to continue to affect medical segment profit during the remainder of fiscal 2024.
The medical unit was “a major point of focus for investors”, J.P.Morgan analyst Lisa Gill said in a note.
Cardinal now expects the medical segment to report a full-year profit about $380 million, compared with its previous forecast of about $400 million.
The updated forecast for the medical unit reflects “some nonrecurring adjustments in the second quarter,” Cardinal Health CEO Jason Hollar said on a post-earnings call.
Cardinal Health, however, raised the full-year adjusted profit forecast for the company for the third time.
The company’s fourth-quarter total sales came in at $57.45 billion, beating analysts’ estimates of $57.01 billion, according to LSEG data.
On an adjusted basis, Cardinal Health reported a profit of $1.82 per share, topping expectations of $1.60.
(Reporting by Mariam Sunny in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta)
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