Cencora (COR)
Forward P/E is 16.90x against a peer median of 19.61x, a ratio of 0.86x — below the 0.90 fair-band floor — with trailing P/E 24.26x and PEG 1.73. Latest-quarter revenue grew 5.1% year over year (PRIMARY, EDGAR). Value-trap check: revenue is growing, not shrinking, and the group median growth is positive, so the discount stands. Delivered demand check: the Health care distributors group's median growth was 7.2% year over year — demand steady, with this company growing a little more slowly at 5.1%.
What would change this label: Move to FAIRLY PRICED if the forward P/E rises above about 17.6x (0.90x the peer median) at unchanged estimates, or if revenue growth falls below 0% year over year for two quarters. Move further from fair value if the forward P/E falls below about 15x while revenue growth stays above 5% year over year.
Cencora delivers medicines to pharmacies, hospitals and cancer clinics. Its shares cost less than similar distributors — about 17 times expected earnings against about 20 times for peers — while its sales are still growing. That makes the shares look undervalued.
Both lines start at 100 on 2020-09-01. Over the full window Cencora returned +245.04% and the S&P 500 +118.28% (price returns; dividends not reinvested). Worst peak-to-trough fall for Cencora: -32.6% (2025-11-25 to 2026-05-06). Source: Nasdaq official daily history.
What the label rests on
Forward P/E is 16.90x against a peer median of 19.61x, a ratio of 0.86x — below the 0.90 fair-band floor — with trailing P/E 24.26x and PEG 1.73. Latest-quarter revenue grew 5.1% year over year (PRIMARY, EDGAR). Value-trap check: revenue is growing, not shrinking, and the group median growth is positive, so the discount stands. Delivered demand check: the Health care distributors group's median growth was 7.2% year over year — demand steady, with this company growing a little more slowly at 5.1%. The company’s forward P/E is 16.9× against a peer median of 19.6×. Its own history: UNVERIFIED — no sourced range available. Sector demand read: Delivered demand check: the Health care distributors group's median latest-quarter revenue growth was 7.2% year over year (SEC filings) — demand steady. This company grew 5.1%, a little below that pace. Latest-quarter sales growth was +5.1% versus a year earlier (SEC filings).
| Company | Price (Oct 28, 2026) | Forward P/E | Trailing P/E |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cencora (COR) | $326.55 | 16.9× | 24.3× |
| CAH | — | 19.6× | 34.2× |
| MCK | — | 20.8× | 25.8× |
| HSIC | — | 15.0× | 24.8× |
| Peer median | 19.6× |
Multiples: stockanalysis.com (SECONDARY, S&P Global data), fetched Oct 28, 2026. Peer set chosen by sector; the median is the middle value of the set. The label and its numbers were recorded in the programme’s label registry on Oct 28, 2026 and will be scored at 6 and 12 months.
Sales, profit and cash
Gross margin = gross profit divided by sales, from SEC filings.
Free cash flow = cash from operations minus spending on plant and equipment, both from the company’s SEC cash-flow statement. Gaps are quarters where that spending line is not separately tagged in the filings — shown as gaps, never estimated.
| Quarter | Sales | Gross margin | Net income | EPS (GAAP, diluted) | Free cash flow |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Q/E Jun 2026 2026-06-30 | $84.8B | 4.3% | $764M | 3.94 | $2.4B |
| Q/E Mar 2026 2026-03-31 | $78.4B | 4.6% | $1.6B | 8.40 | $1.2B |
| Q/E Dec 2025 2025-12-31 | $85.9B | 3.6% | $560M | 2.87 | $-2.4B |
| Q/E Sep 2025 2025-09-30 | $83.7B | 3.5% | $-340M | — | $2.9B |
| Q/E Jun 2025 2025-06-30 | $80.7B | 3.6% | $687M | 3.52 | $-74M |
| Q/E Mar 2025 2025-03-31 | $75.5B | 4.1% | $718M | 3.68 | $3.2B |
| Q/E Dec 2024 2024-12-31 | $81.5B | 3.1% | $489M | 2.50 | $-2.8B |
| Q/E Sep 2024 2024-09-30 | $79.1B | 3.1% | $3M | — | $818M |
| Q/E Jun 2024 2024-06-30 | $74.2B | 3.2% | $483M | 2.42 | $2.4B |
| Q/E Mar 2024 2024-03-31 | $68.4B | 3.7% | $421M | 2.09 | $-991M |
| Q/E Dec 2023 2023-12-31 | $72.3B | 3.4% | $602M | 2.98 | $811M |
| Q/E Sep 2023 2023-09-30 | $68.9B | 3.3% | $351M | — | $1.7B |
The last twelve reported quarters. Full 24-quarter history sits in the data pack behind this page. A dash means the figure is not tagged as a standalone quarter in the company’s SEC facts (the usual case is the fourth quarter, which many companies only report inside the full-year filing) — it is missing, not zero.
Earnings: getting better or worse?
Each box is one quarter’s earnings per share (EPS). Green means EPS was higher than the same quarter a year earlier; red means lower; a dash means the figure is not tagged in the filings.
Basis: GAAP diluted EPS from SEC company facts, compared with the same quarter a year earlier.
Key facts
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| Company (legal name in filings) | Cencora, Inc. |
| Chief executive | Robert P. Mauch (source: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20261020319270/en/Cencora-to-Acquire-American-Oncology-Network-to-Strengthen-Support-of-Community-Oncology) |
| Sector | Health Care — Health Care Distributors — distributes medicines and health-care products to pharmacies, hospitals and cancer clinics |
| Share price (Oct 28, 2026) | $326.55 |
| Market value (market cap) | $62.1B — share price times shares outstanding of 190,827,165 (SEC filings; SEC EDGAR dei EntityCommonStockSharesOutstanding (latest)) |
| Sales, last twelve months | $332.8B |
| Net income, last twelve months | $2.6B |
| Free cash flow, last twelve months | $4.1B |
| Latest reported quarter | Q/E Jun 2026 (of 24 quarters in the data pack) |
| Six-year price return vs S&P 500 | +245.04% vs +118.28% |
| Worst peak-to-trough fall | -32.6% (2025-11-25 to 2026-05-06) |
What we could not verify
- TTM GAAP diluted EPS could not be summed from company facts because at least one of the last four quarters (typically Q4) has no standalone tagged EPS; trailing P/E is therefore taken from the labelled secondary source in valuation_label.md.
- Own-history P/E range not yet compiled for this company in the Phase 1 batch run; the label rests on peer-median, growth and PEG evidence.
- Guidance record (each quarter scored against the guidance the company gave the quarter before) is not yet compiled for this company — it is a Phase 2 layer. The earnings strip below therefore uses reported EPS versus a year earlier, which is fully sourced from filings.
The IT factor — the most exciting thing the market is overlooking — is not assessed on an X-Ray page. It belongs to the Deep Dive (Phase 2), where it gets the evidence standard it needs. Leadership-era scoring (the six years split by chief executive) is likewise a Phase 2 layer; this page names the current chief executive only, from a sourced profile.
Sources
- SEC EDGAR submissions — Filing index; company legal name.
https://data.sec.gov/submissions/CIK0001140859.json - SEC EDGAR company facts — Quarterly financial spine: revenue, gross profit, net income, GAAP diluted EPS, operating cash flow, PP&E capex, buybacks, dividends, diluted shares.
https://data.sec.gov/api/xbrl/companyfacts/CIK0001140859.json - Nasdaq official daily history — Daily closes for the company; SPY (assetclass=etf) saved as raw/nasdaq_spy_raw.json over identical dates.
https://api.nasdaq.com/api/quote/COR/historical?assetclass=stocks - Valuation multiples and peer figures — stockanalysis.com (SECONDARY, S&P Global data), fetched Oct 28, 2026; see valuation_label.md in the data pack.
Conventions: earliest-filed value per period, as first reported; cash-flow years-to-date differenced quarter by quarter; EPS never differenced; free cash flow = operating cash flow minus plant-and-equipment spending. This page is a dated snapshot — updates are new versions, never silent edits.