Baxter International Target of Unusually High Options Trading (NYSE:BAX)

Baxter International Inc. (NYSE:BAX) saw some unusual options trading on Monday. Stock traders acquired 7,292 call options on the stock. This is an increase of 107% compared to the typical volume of 3,522 call options.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Baxter International

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Baird Financial Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Baxter International by 3.2% during the 2nd quarter. Baird Financial Group Inc. now owns 52,436 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock worth $1,588,000 after buying an additional 1,604 shares during the last quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System lifted its position in Baxter International by 2.9% in the second quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 649,463 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock valued at $19,666,000 after acquiring an additional 18,439 shares during the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. lifted its position in Baxter International by 1.3% in the second quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 7,638,629 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock valued at $231,304,000 after acquiring an additional 97,687 shares during the last quarter. BI Asset Management Fondsmaeglerselskab A S boosted its stake in Baxter International by 21.4% in the second quarter. BI Asset Management Fondsmaeglerselskab A S now owns 24,356 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock valued at $737,000 after acquiring an additional 4,293 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Captrust Financial Advisors boosted its stake in Baxter International by 5.5% in the second quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 53,933 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock valued at $1,633,000 after acquiring an additional 2,813 shares in the last quarter. 90.19% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on BAX. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price target on shares of Baxter International from $19.00 to $21.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 15th. Zacks Research cut shares of Baxter International from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a report on Monday, July 13th. Barclays upped their target price on shares of Baxter International from $25.00 to $27.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, May 1st. Weiss Ratings raised shares of Baxter International from a “sell (d-)” rating to a “sell (d)” rating in a research report on Friday. Finally, TD Cowen boosted their price target on shares of Baxter International from $20.00 to $24.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, July 27th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eight have assigned a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Reduce” and an average target price of $22.45.

Baxter International Stock Up 6.3%

NYSE:BAX traded up $1.65 during trading hours on Monday, hitting $27.80. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 2,696,152 shares, compared to its average volume of 8,350,267. Baxter International has a 52-week low of $15.73 and a 52-week high of $30.00. The company has a current ratio of 1.95, a quick ratio of 1.32 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39. The stock has a market capitalization of $14.38 billion, a P/E ratio of -13.42, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.97 and a beta of 0.59. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $21.34 and a 200-day moving average of $19.60.

Baxter International (NYSE:BAX) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 30th. The medical instruments supplier reported $0.56 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.37 by $0.19. The company had revenue of $2.96 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.80 billion. Baxter International had a positive return on equity of 16.57% and a negative net margin of 9.27%.Baxter International’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.59 EPS. Baxter International has set its FY 2026 guidance at 1.950-2.150 EPS. On average, equities analysts forecast that Baxter International will post 2.04 earnings per share for the current year.

Baxter International Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, October 1st. Investors of record on Friday, August 28th will be paid a dividend of $0.01 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, August 28th. This represents a $0.04 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.1%. Baxter International’s payout ratio is presently -1.93%.

Baxter International Company Profile

Baxter International Inc is a global healthcare company that develops, manufactures and markets a broad portfolio of medical products, pharmaceutical therapies and biotechnology-based solutions. The company’s primary business activities are organized around renal care, medication delivery, acute therapies, pharmacy automation, surgical care and biotechnology. Baxter’s offerings are designed to support patient care in hospitals, dialysis centers, nursing homes and other healthcare facilities worldwide.

In the renal care segment, Baxter provides hemodialysis and peritoneal dialysis systems, water treatment equipment and related disposables, including dialyzers, bloodlines and catheters.