What is an income statement waterfall?

An income statement waterfall is a bar chart that walks from total revenue down to net income, with each step showing how much a cost or tax line removes (or adds). Subtotals — gross profit, operating income, pre-tax income — are anchored to zero so the cascade reconciles exactly to the bottom line.

How much of Cardinal Health (CAH) revenue becomes net income?

For TTM through Q1 2026, Cardinal Health turned $251B of revenue into $1.56B of net income — a net margin of 0.6%. The waterfall shows where the rest goes: cost of revenue, operating expenses, non-operating items, and taxes.

What are Cardinal Health (CAH) gross, operating, and net margins?

For TTM through Q1 2026, Cardinal Health reported a gross margin of 3.7%, an operating margin of 0.9%, and a net margin of 0.6%. Each subtotal in the waterfall corresponds to one of these margins.

Why does Cardinal Health (CAH) have such a high (or low) gross margin?

Gross margin (gross profit ÷ revenue) reflects how much of each revenue dollar remains after direct production costs. Capital-light software and platform businesses often show gross margins above 60–80% because their cost of revenue is mainly hosting and support. Hardware, retail, and commodity businesses show lower gross margins because raw materials and manufacturing costs are significant. The waterfall makes this visible at a glance — the size of the "Cost of Revenue" bar relative to Revenue is the gross margin complement.

What is the difference between gross, operating, and net margin?

Gross margin = (Revenue − Cost of Revenue) ÷ Revenue. It measures production efficiency. Operating margin = Operating Income ÷ Revenue. It adds operating expenses (R&D, S&M, G&A) and measures the profitability of core operations. Net margin = Net Income ÷ Revenue. It also includes interest, other income/expense, and taxes, and represents the shareholder take after everything.

Cardinal Health (CAH) Income Statement Waterfall

Revenue

$251B

Gross Margin

+3.7%

Operating Margin

+0.9%

Net Margin

+0.6%

Income statement waterfall for Cardinal Health (CAH) — TTM through Q1 2026

Net income: $1.56B

Margin breakdown for Cardinal Health (CAH) — TTM through Q1 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Revenue	$251B	$251B
Cost of Revenue	-$241B	$9.23B
Gross Profit	$9.23B	$9.23B
Operating Expenses	-$6.92B	$2.31B
Operating Income	$2.31B	$2.31B
Other Income / Expense	-$308M	$2B
Pre-tax Income	$2B	$2B
Income Tax	-$456M	$1.55B
Net Income	$1.56B	$1.56B

Revenue$251B
Cost of Revenue-$241B
Gross Profit$9.23B
Operating Expenses-$6.92B
Operating Income$2.31B
Other Income / Expense-$308M
Pre-tax Income$2B
Income Tax-$456M
Net Income$1.56B

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