Becton Dickinson (NYSE:BDX) today announced that it brought in $5.3 billion in revenue for its first quarter ended Dec. 31, 2020, beating the nearly $4.7 billion expected by Wall Street analysts.
The announcement of the preliminary unaudited Q1 results sent BDX shares up 1.8% to $261.75 apiece by midday trading today. MassDevice’s MedTech 100 Index, which includes stocks of the world’s largest medical device companies, was down slightly.
The Q1 revenue was up 25.6% from the same quarter a year before. Strong demand COVID-19 diagnostic tests played a primary role, but BD also saw better-than-expected performance across all three segments as elective and routine procedure volume showed greater resiliency as a new wave of the novel coronavirus pandemic struck the world.
On top of being an important provider of COVID diagnostic tests, BD is also playing a crucial role in supplying the syringes needed to deliver the newly approved vaccines.
“We have entered fiscal 2021 with strong momentum and now expect to deliver fiscal 2021 revenues toward the high-end of our previously communicated guidance range and to be above our prior adjusted EPS guidance range,” BD CEO Tom Polen said in a news release.
Polen reported important steps in Q1 toward fixing BD’s problematic Alaris infusion pumps, which are presently only going to health providers with an immediate medical need as the company prepares the 510(k) submission that FDA required for software fixes. Polen repeated that the company expects to submit the 510(k) in late Q2 or early Q3 (around the spring).
