Cardinal Health Inc. (CAH) shares surged Thursday after the healthcare services company delivered second-quarter results that beat expectations across the board and gave investors even better news for the year ahead.

The company posted adjusted earnings of $2.63 per share, comfortably ahead of the consensus estimate of $2.35. Revenue climbed 19% year over year to $65.63 billion, topping analyst expectations of $64.14 billion. Adjusted operating earnings jumped 38% to $877 million.

Strong Performance Across Business Lines

The Pharmaceutical and Specialty Solutions segment, which represents the bulk of Cardinal Health's business, saw revenue increase 19% to $60.7 billion. The growth was driven by brand and specialty pharmaceutical sales from both existing and new customers. More importantly, segment profit jumped 29% to $687 million, powered by contributions from brand and specialty products, acquisitions of MSO platforms, and solid performance from the generics program.

The Global Medical Products and Distribution segment posted a 3% revenue increase to $3.3 billion, driven by volume growth from existing customers. But the real story here was profitability. Segment profit more than doubled, surging 106% to $37 million. That growth came from existing customer expansion and cost optimization efforts, though tariffs did create some headwinds.

Management Raises the Bar

"Our strong second-quarter performance reflects at least double-digit segment profit growth across all five of our operating segments," said Jason Hollar, CEO of Cardinal Health.

"Our ongoing momentum and the team's consistent execution against our strategic priorities gives us confidence to raise our fiscal 2026 outlook," Hollar added.

And raise it they did. Cardinal Health boosted its fiscal 2026 adjusted earnings guidance to $10.15-$10.35 per share, representing 23-26% growth. That's up from prior guidance of at least $10 per share and above the consensus estimate of $10.01.

The company also raised its profit growth expectations for the Pharmaceutical and Specialty Solutions segment to 20-22%, up from the previous range of 16-19%. For the Global Medical Products and Distribution segment, profit guidance increased to approximately $150 million from at least $140 million.

CAH Price Action: Cardinal Health shares jumped 9.11% to $225.70 at the time of publication on Thursday, hitting a new 52-week high.