Wedmont Private Capital Buys 21,356 Shares of Baxter International Inc. $BAX

Wedmont Private Capital boosted its stake in Baxter International Inc. (NYSE:BAX) by 74.8% in the second quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 49,891 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock after purchasing an additional 21,356 shares during the quarter. Wedmont Private Capital’s holdings in Baxter International were worth $1,129,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Baxter International in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $1,744,874,000. Pzena Investment Management LLC bought a new position in Baxter International in the second quarter valued at approximately $1,392,098,000. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in Baxter International by 7.8% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 13,510,205 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock valued at $257,174,000 after purchasing an additional 972,891 shares in the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. raised its position in Baxter International by 1.3% during 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 purchasing an additional 97,687 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Equity Investment Corp bought a new stake in Baxter International during the second quarter worth $146,815,000. 90.19% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Citigroup upgraded Baxter International from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $17.00 to $28.00 in a research note on Friday, July 31st. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price objective on Baxter International from $19.00 to $21.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 15th. UBS Group boosted their target price on Baxter International from $19.00 to $25.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 28th. Stifel Nicolaus increased their target price on shares of Baxter International from $19.00 to $24.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 28th. Finally, Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Baxter International from a “sell (d-)” rating to a “sell (d)” rating in a research note on Friday, July 31st. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, nine have assigned a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $22.45.

Baxter International Trading Down 3.7%

Shares of BAX stock opened at $24.87 on Wednesday. Baxter International Inc. has a twelve month low of $15.73 and a twelve month high of $30.00. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $24.87 and its 200 day simple moving average is $20.78. The company has a quick ratio of 1.32, a current ratio of 1.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39. The firm has a market capitalization of $12.86 billion, a P/E ratio of -12.01, a P/E/G ratio of 3.91 and a beta of 0.60.

Baxter International (NYSE:BAX) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, July 30th. The medical instruments supplier reported $0.56 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.37 by $0.19. Baxter International had a positive return on equity of 16.57% and a negative net margin of 9.27%.The firm had revenue of $2.96 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.80 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.59 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 5.3% on a year-over-year basis. Baxter International has set its FY 2026 guidance at 1.950-2.150 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Baxter International Inc. will post 2.04 EPS for the current fiscal 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 given 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 0.2%. Baxter International’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently -1.93%.

About Baxter International

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.