UPDATE 3-Cardinal Health posts profit vs year-ago loss

(Rewrites first paragraph, adds conference call, more analyst comment, byline, updates stock activity)

By Debra Sherman

CHICAGO, May 1 (Reuters) - Drug wholesaler Cardinal Health Inc (CAH.N: Quote, Profile, Research) reported a quarterly profit on Thursday, reversing a year-earlier loss, and reaffirmed its fiscal 2008 outlook, but acknowledged that the slowdown in the pharmaceutical market weighed on its performance.

Net earnings were $366 million, or $1.02 per share, in its third quarter ended March 31, compared with a loss of $5 million, or 1 cent per share, a year earlier.

The average estimate on Wall Street was for net profit of $1.00 per share, according to Reuters Estimates.

The latest results included a charge of 6 cents per share related to an acquisition, litigation, restructuring and other items. The year-earlier loss included a big charge to resolve class-action securities litigation.

Revenue rose 5 percent to $22.9 billion.

"Total revenue growth has been negatively affected by several factors, some macro and some Cardinal specific," Chief Financial Officer Jeff Henderson told a conference call. "The overall pharma market slowdown affected us from a macro perspective."

He added that revenue growth was also hurt as contracts with its large customers were renegotiated at lower levels.