Baxter Reports In Line

For the first time in 20 quarters, Baxter International (BAX) failed to beat expectations:

Baxter International reported a 1 percent profit increase for the fourth-quarter on Thursday, meeting Wall Street expectations but failing to impress analysts accustomed to bigger gains from the medical products maker.
The company’s broad mix of medically necessary products — including blood plasma, kidney dialysis treatments and cancer drugs — continued to post solid returns, though analysts said its guidance for 2010 appeared conservative.
Baxter earned $572 million, or 94 cents per share, up from $569 million, or 91 cents per share, a year prior. Revenue rose 11 percent to $3.47 billion from $3.13 billion.
Excluding charges, the Deerfield, Ill., company said it earned $1.03 per share, in-line with estimates by analysts polled by Thomson Reuters.
While the company successfully met Wall Street projections, Leerink Swann analyst Rick Wise noted that the company has beat such estimates the last 20 consecutive quarters. The last period when the company achieved in-line results was in 2004, according to an investment note from Wise.

Posted by on January 28th, 2010 at 12:20 pm


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