This acquisition is already paying off

Article Excerpt

BAXTER INTERNATIONAL INC. $75 is a buy. The company (New York symbol BAX; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 503.5 million; Market cap: $37.8 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.7; Dividend yield: 1.5%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.baxter.com) recently acquired Hill-Rom Holdings Inc. for $12.4 billion. Hill-Rom makes intensive-care unit beds, operating tables, patient monitoring equipment and electronic diagnostic systems. The purchase is why Baxter’s revenue in the first quarter of 2022 jumped 25.8%, to $3.71 billion from $2.95 billion a year earlier. Excluding unusual items, earnings rose 22.4%, to $0.93 a share from $0.76. In addition to Hill-Rom, the easing of the COVID-19 pandemic is lifting demand for Baxter’s other products, including intravenous pumps and kidney-dialysis equipment. The company is so confident in its prospects that it’s now raising your quarterly dividend by 3.6%. The new annual rate of $1.16 a share yields 1.5%. The stock also trades at an attractive 18.0 times forecast 2022 earnings of $4.16 a share. Baxter is a buy. buy…