Becton, Dickinson Misses By a Penny

Becton, Dickinson (BDX) sneaked up on us and reported earnings after today’s close. Unfortunately, this became our first earnings miss of the season, although it was only by a penny.

For their fiscal fourth-quarter, Becton, Dickinson earned $1.24 per share compared with Wall Street’s forecast of $1.25 per share. I’m a little disappointed since the last two earnings reports were quite good.

The good news, and more important in my view, is that the company gave guidance for the next fiscal year (ending September 2011) of earnings ranging between $5.45 per share and $5.55 per share. The Street was at $5.42 so it’s nice to see them exceed expectations. For this past year, BDX made $4.90 per share. The revenue forecast for next year of 4% growth is on the light side. The stock fell a bit after-hours.

The company also said it plans to buy back $1.5 billion worth of stock next year and another $600 million in 2012. I know investors don’t like high-priced stocks, but BDX is a solid buy. Any entry below $80 is a good value.

Update: Here’s the transcript of the earnings call from Seeking Alpha.

Posted by on November 3rd, 2010 at 9:01 pm


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