Tag Archives: stocks

Baxter Raises Guidance As Hospital Market Rebounds; Stock Hits High

Shares of medical-product maker Baxter International ( BAX ) hit an all-time high Tuesday after the company beat Q1 estimates and raised its guidance. Baxter’s earnings, excluding one-time items, rose 6% over the year-earlier quarter to 36 cents a share, beating analysts’ consensus by seven cents, according to Thomson Reuters. Sales declined 1% to $2.38 billion, beating Wall Street’s number by about $22 million. Excluding the foreign-exchange impact, sales rose 4%. Baxter added 13 cents to its full-year EPS guidance, now $1.59 to $1.67, up from $1.36 last year. The company said that its constant-currency sales growth should be 3%; it had previously guided 2% to 3%. For the second quarter, Baxter forecast earnings of 38 to 40 cents a share, topping analysts’ average estimate of 35 cents. It said that sales should grow 2% — even including the FX impact — where the Street had expected a slight decline. Baxter stock hit a new high of 44.75 in early trading on the stock market today . In afternoon trading, shares were up less than 1%, near 44. Baxter’s products, which include IV systems, dialysis machines and surgical equipment, are sold mainly to the hospital market, which has been looking strong this earnings season, according to Leerink analyst Danielle Antalffy. “This — now the third consecutive growth quarter in the U.S. after two consecutive quarters of low-single-digit declines — could serve as another encouraging data point, in addition to Johnson & Johnson ( JNJ ), St. Jude Medical ( STJ ) and Abbott Laboratories ( ABT ) (Q1 reports) last week, that supports a potential trend for improving U.S. procedure volumes overall,” Antalffy wrote in a research note. The fortunes of hospital stocks supports her view: The Medical-Hospitals group has been among the fastest-rising of IBD’s 197 industry groups, leaping from No. 191 to six weeks ago to No. 39 at present.

Have 3D Systems, Stratasys Stocks Traveled Too Far Too Fast?

With a strong leap in the stock prices of 3D Systems ( DDD ) and Stratasys ( SSYS ), some analysts question if the rise was too far too fast. Needham analyst James Ricchiuti on Tuesday lowered his rating on 3D Systems to hold from buy, saying further upside in the stock over the near term will be challenging. He says the turnaround at 3D Systems should be more gradual than the market is anticipating. It follows a recent downgrade of 3D Systems and Stratasys from Citi based on stock price valuations of both companies. Shares of 3D Systems and Stratasys were hammered in 2015 as both posted quarter after quarter of disappointing earnings and sales. This year, Stratasys stock has nearly doubled since hitting a six-year low of 14.88 three months ago. 3D Systems has nearly triple since hitting a five-year low of 6 three months ago. “3D Systems shares are now above our 12-month target price,” Ricchiuti wrote in a research note. “With the stock trading at 32 times our 2017 EPS estimate, the market appears to be pricing healthy upside to estimates.” The rise of both stocks were partly fueled by the Q4 earnings reports of both companies that beat expectations, suggesting the worst might be over and raising hopes the top two 3D printer makers are poised for a rebound. But that wasn’t the message that 3D Systems and Stratasys tried to signal, as comments from company executives during the conference call were of a cautious tone about the road ahead. 3D Systems got a further bounce when it announced Vyomesh Joshi as CEO on April 4. Joshi had been executive vice president of the imaging and printing business of HP Inc. ( HPQ ), formerly Hewlett-Packard before its split. HP plans to enter the 3D printer market this year. 3D Systems stock was near 18, down 2%, in afternoon trading in the stock market today . Stratasys was trading near 26, up a fraction. 3D Systems is set to report first-quarter earnings on May 5 and Stratasys on May 9, both before the market open. The consensus on 3D Systems is revenue of $156.3 million, down 3% year over year, and earnings per share minus items of 5 cents, flat, as polled by Thomson Reuters. Stratasys sales are seen rising 4.5% to $164.8 million as it swings to a 4-cent per-share loss from a 4-cent profit. “Notwithstanding solid sequential improvement in Q4 from eight of the publicly traded 3D printing companies, we believe business remains challenging compounded by the normal seasonal weakness experienced in the March quarter,” Ricchiuti wrote.