This story has been undated to include comments from a call with investors.
NEW YORK – Becton Dickinson said Thursday that its fiscal fourth quarter revenues grew 7 percent year over year including a 1 percent uptick in its Life Sciences division.
For the three months ended Sept. 30, BD reported total revenues of $5.44 billion compared to $5.09 billion a year ago and slightly above analysts' consensus estimate of $5.38 billion.
On a currency-neutral basis, Q4 revenue were also up about 7 percent, while organic revenue growth — adjusted for currency effects and the impact to revenues of acquisitions and divestitures — was about 6 percent year over year.
Revenues for BD's Life Sciences segment, which includes the Integrated Diagnostic Solutions and Biosciences business units, were $1.34 billion in Q4 compared to $1.33 billion in the year-ago quarter.
Integrated Diagnostic Solutions revenues grew 2 percent year over year to $943 million from $926 million, reflecting strong growth in specimen management and double-digit growth for the BD Max IVD and BD Cor platforms, partially offset by a difficult prior-year comparison in microbiology.
Meanwhile, Biosciences revenues dropped about 2 percent to $397 million from $405 million, driven by "transitory market dynamics" resulting in lower demand for research instruments partially offset by strong growth in clinical solutions that was driven by the FACSLyric Clinical Cell Analyzer and cancer reagents, BD said.
"We continue to outperform our life science peers, given our portfolio mix of leading instruments, including the BD FACSDiscover, antibodies, dyes, and software," Christopher DelOrefice, BD's chief financial officer, said on a call with investors to discuss the Q3 results.
In other segments, BD Medical Q4 revenues grew 11 percent year over year to $2.84 billion from $2.55 billion a year ago, while BD Interventional revenues grew 5 percent to $1.26 billion from $1.20 billion.
The company's Q4 R&D expenses grew 8 percent to $302 million from $281 million, while its selling and administrative expenses jumped 10 percent to $1.26 billion from $1.14 billion a year ago.
BD's Q4 net income was $421 million, or $1.45 per share, compared to net income of $108 million, or $.37 per share, a year ago. Adjusted EPS of $3.81 bested the Wall Street estimate of $3.77.
For fiscal year 2024, BD reported total revenues of $20.18 billion, up 4 percent from $19.4 billion a year ago and above analysts' consensus estimate of $20.16 billion. On a currency-neutral and adjusted basis, full-year revenues increased 5 percent year over year.
"Despite fiscal 2024 revenue growth that was below our initial expectations, we are pleased with how we navigated complex market dynamics in China and bioscience/pharma," Tom Polan, president and CEO of BD, said on the call. "Over the long term, we see bioscience/pharma as a durable, higher growth contributor to our portfolio and we remain confident in gradual market recovery, our competitive position, and the team's execution," he added.
Full-year BD Life Sciences revenues grew 1 percent to $5.19 billion from $5.13 billion in FY 2023, including an approximately 2 percent uptick in Integrated Diagnostic Solutions revenues to $3.68 billion from $3.62 billion, and relatively flat year-over-year revenues of $1.51 billion for the Biosciences segment.
BD Medical full-year revenues grew 6 percent year over year to $10.07 billion from $9.50 billion, while BD Interventional full-year revenues jumped 5 percent to $4.98 billion from $4.74 billion a year ago.
The company shaved its full-year R&D expenses by 4 percent to $1.19 billion from $1.24 billion in FY 2023, while its selling and administrative spending grew 3 percent year over year to $4.86 billion from $4.72 billion.
BD recorded full-year net income of $1.73 billion, or $5.93 per share, compared to net income of $1.42 billion, or $4.94 per share. Adjusted full-year EPS of $13.14 beat the Wall Street estimate of $13.11.
Polan said on the call that the firm is planning to launch more than 25 new products in 2025, including the FACSDiscover A8 Cell Analyzer in the second half of 2025. The platform will "provide customers high-throughput sample analysis with the same innovative technologies as our breakthrough cell sorter," he said.
For fiscal year 2025, BD provided revenue guidance of $21.9 billion to $22.1 billion, representing year-over-year growth of approximately 9 percent. Organic revenue growth is expected to be 4 percent to 4.5 percent, reflecting an expected decline in revenues from China as well as Bioscience and Pharma market dynamics, the company said.
The company expects full-year adjusted EPS of $14.25 to $14.60.
BD finished the year with $1.72 billion in cash and cash equivalents, $139 million in restricted cash, and $445 million in short-term investments.
In afternoon trading on the New York Stock Exchange shares of BD were down approximately 4 percent at $230.69.