Baxter beats The Street with Q1 results

Shares in Baxter (NYSE:BAX) rose today in pre-market activity after the medical device maker beat expectations on Wall Street with its first-quarter results.

The Deerfield, Ill.-based company posted profits of $389 million, or 71¢ per share, on sales of $2.68 billion for the 3 months ended March 31, for bottom-line growth of 43% on sales growth of 8.2% compared with the same period last year.

Adjusted to exclude 1-time items, earnings per share were 70¢, ahead of consensus on The Street, where analysts were looking for sales of $2.62 billion.

“Baxter is off to a strong start in 2018,” chairman & CEO Joe Almeida said in prepared remarks. “Solid top-line performance coupled with a relentless focus on increasing operational efficiency were key drivers of earnings growth in the quarter.”

The company estimated that manufacturing disruptions caused by Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico took a $25 million hit to its sales results in Q1. Its Puerto Rico-based facilities are all back to pre-hurricane production levels, Baxter noted, but it continues to import select products from other Baxter facilities.

The company raised its financial outlook for the year based on its Q1 results. Baxter said it expects to post adjusted EPS of $2.85 – $2.93 on sales growth of 7% – 8% for the full year.

BAX shares were trading at $68.25 apiece today in pre-market activity, up 2.5%.

“Investors largely expect BAX to over-deliver on operating leverage, in our view, but this solid U.S. sales growth performance – albeit likely helped to some extent by a busy flu season – could continue to positively surprise investors,” Leerink analysts Danielle Antalffy & Rebecca Wang wrote in a note to investors.

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