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Franklin Lakes, New Jersey-based Becton, Dickinson and Company (BDX) develops, manufactures, and sells medical supplies, devices, laboratory equipment, and diagnostic products. With a market cap of $68.5 billion, the company operates through BD Medical, BD Life Sciences, and BD Interventional segments.
The healthcare giant is expected to announce its first-quarter earnings on Thursday, Feb. 6. Ahead of the event analysts expect BDX to report a non-GAAP profit of $2.98 per share, up 11.2% from $2.68 per share reported in the year-ago quarter. Furthermore, the company has surpassed Wall Street’s bottom-line estimates in each of the past four quarters. Its adjusted EPS for the last reported quarter surged 11.4% year-over-year to $3.81, exceeding analysts' estimates by 1.1%.
For fiscal 2025, BDX is expected to deliver an adjusted EPS of $14.43, up 9.8% from $13.14 in fiscal 2024. While in fiscal 2026, its earnings are expected to grow 8.7% year-over-year to $15.69 per share.
BDX stock prices have dipped by marginal 20-basis points over the past 52 weeks slightly outpacing the Healthcare Select Sector SPDR Fund’s (XLV) 37-basis points decline while lagging behind the S&P 500 Index’s ($SPX) 22.1% gains during the same time frame.
Despite crushing Wall Street’s topline and earnings expectations, Becton, Dickinson and Company’s stock prices plummeted 5.4% after the release of its fourth-quarter earnings on Nov. 7. Driven by robust 23.6% year-over-year growth in Medication Management Solutions’ revenues in the U.S. to $744 million, BDX’s overall revenues increased 6.9% to $5.4 billion. Meanwhile, due to a significant 13.7% reduction in the cost of products sold to $2.9 billion, BDX’s operating margins expanded by a massive 509 basis points to nearly 12%. This translated into a staggering 86.2% year-over-year growth in operating income to $650 million.
However, due to lower sales expectations in China and Bioscience and Pharma market dynamics, the company gave a modest full-year organic sales growth guidance of 4% to 4.5% which unsettled investor confidence.
Nonetheless, analysts remain strongly bullish on the company’s long-term prospects. The stock has a consensus “Strong Buy” rating overall. Out of the 17 analysts covering the BDX stock, 14 recommend “Strong Buy,” one advises “Moderate Buy,” and two suggest a “Hold” rating. Its mean price target of $275.87 indicates a 17% premium to current price levels.
