Spinoff spotlight: Becton Dickinson

Article Excerpt

BECTON DICKINSON & CO. $222 is your #1 Spinoff Buy for 2022. The medical device maker (New York symbol BDX; Manufacturing sector; Shares outstanding: 285.2 million; Market cap: $63.3 billion; Dividend yield: 1.6%; Takeover Target Rating: Medium; www.bd.com) spun off its Diabetes Care business in April 2022 as a separate, publicly traded firm called embecta Corp. (Nasdaq symbol EMBC). Investors received one share of embecta for every five common shares of Becton they held. As part of the spinoff, embecta paid $1.44 billion to Becton. In its fiscal 2022 fourth quarter, ended September 30, 2022, Becton’s revenue fell 1.8%, to $4.76 billion from $4.85 billion a year earlier. That’s due to lower demand for the company’s COVID-19 diagnostic tests as infections eased in the summer. If you factor out acquisitions and currency rates, revenue rose 2.3%. Earnings before one-time items jumped 27.9%, to $2.75 a share from $2.15. For fiscal 2023, Becton expects its earnings per share will rise about 5.5% to $12.00 a share. The…