Earnings call transcript: Becton Dickinson Q4 2025 sees slight EPS beat, stock drops

Becton, Dickinson and Co. (BDX) reported its fourth-quarter earnings for 2025, surpassing earnings per share (EPS) expectations but narrowly missing revenue forecasts. The company achieved an EPS of $3.96, slightly above the forecast of $3.92, marking a 1.02% surprise. However, revenue came in at $5.9 billion, just below the anticipated $5.91 billion. Despite the earnings beat, the stock fell 7.59% in premarket trading, closing at $163, down from the previous day’s close of $176.39.

Key Takeaways

• Becton Dickinson’s Q4 EPS of $3.96 exceeded expectations by 1.02%.
• The company missed its revenue forecast slightly, reporting $5.9 billion.
• Stock price dropped 7.59% in premarket trading following the earnings release.
• Full year revenue increased by 7.7% year-over-year to $21.8 billion.
• FY2026 EPS guidance set between $14.75 and $15.05.

Company Performance

Becton Dickinson demonstrated solid financial performance in Q4 2025, with a 7% year-over-year increase in revenue, bolstered by a 3.9% organic growth rate. The company’s full-year revenue rose to $21.8 billion, reflecting a 7.7% increase from the previous year. The company also returned $2.2 billion to shareholders, including a $1 billion share buyback, marking its 54th consecutive year of dividend increases.

Financial Highlights

• Revenue: $5.9 billion in Q4, up 7% YoY.
• Full Year Revenue: $21.8 billion, up 7.7% YoY.
• Adjusted Diluted EPS: $3.96 in Q4, $14.40 for the full year, up 9.6%.
• Shareholder Returns: $2.2 billion, including $1 billion in share buybacks.

Earnings vs. Forecast

Becton Dickinson’s EPS of $3.96 surpassed expectations by 1.02%, while revenue fell slightly short at $5.9 billion compared to the forecasted $5.91 billion. This minor revenue miss did not significantly impact the stock, as the EPS surprise was relatively small compared to previous quarters.

Market Reaction

Following the earnings announcement, Becton Dickinson’s stock declined by 7.59% in premarket trading. The stock’s price fell to $163, marking a significant move from the prior close of $176.39. This reaction might reflect investor concerns over the revenue miss and broader market trends, as the stock approached its 52-week low of $163.33.

Outlook & Guidance

Looking ahead, Becton Dickinson provided an EPS guidance range for FY2026 of $14.75 to $15.05. The company anticipates low single-digit revenue growth in the upcoming fiscal year, with China expected to see a mid-teens decline due to volume-based procurement. Despite these challenges, Becton Dickinson remains confident in its long-term mid-single-digit growth profile.

Executive Commentary

CEO Tom Polen expressed confidence in the company’s growth trajectory, stating, "We remain very confident in our long-term mid-single digit growth profile." CFO Chris DelOrefice highlighted the company’s commitment to reinvesting in its business, emphasizing "The power of BD Excellence, reinvesting back at the business."

Risks and Challenges

• Potential declines in China due to procurement changes.
• Expected 25% decline in vaccine revenue.
• Macroeconomic pressures affecting global markets.
• Integration challenges with upcoming Waters transaction.
• Continued pressure to maintain market leadership amidst competitive dynamics.

Q&A

During the earnings call, analysts inquired about Becton Dickinson’s guidance approach, the dynamics of Alaris installations, and the company’s capital allocation strategy. Executives emphasized their confidence in achieving long-term growth despite short-term challenges.

Full transcript - Becton Dickinson and Co (BDX) Q4 2025:

Chris DelOrefice, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Becton, Dickinson and Company (BD): Hello and welcome to BD’s fourth quarter and full year fiscal 2025 earnings call. At the request of BD, today’s call is being recorded and will be available for replay on BD’s investor relations website, investors.bd.com, or by phone at 800-839-2383 for domestic calls and area code +1-402-220-7202 for international calls. For today’s call, all parties have been placed in a listen-only mode until the question and answer session. I will now turn the call over to Adam Reith, Vice President, Investor Relations.

Adam Reith, Vice President, Investor Relations, Becton, Dickinson and Company (BD): Good morning and welcome to BD’s earnings call. I’m Adam Reith, Vice President of Investor Relations. Thank you for joining us. This call is being made available via audio webcast at bd.com. Earlier this morning, BD released its results for the fourth quarter and full year fiscal 2025. The press release and presentation can be accessed on the IR website at investors.bd.com. Leading today’s call are Tom Polen, BD’s Chairman, Chief Executive Officer, and President, and Chris DelOrefice, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Before we get started, I want to remind you that we will be making forward-looking statements. You can read the disclaimer in our earnings release and the disclosures in our SEC filings on our investor relations website. Unless otherwise specified, all comparisons will be made on a year-on-year basis versus the relevant fiscal period.

Revenue percentage changes are on an adjusted FX neutral basis unless otherwise noted. Beginning October 1, we began operating under our previously disclosed new BD segment structure that includes medical essentials, connected care, biopharma systems, and interventional, and a fifth life sciences segment comprised of biosciences and diagnostic solutions. Reconciliations between GAAP and non-GAAP measures are included in the appendices of the earnings release and presentation. With that, I am pleased to turn it over to Tom.

Tom Polen, Chairman, Chief Executive Officer, and President, Becton, Dickinson and Company (BD): Thank you, Adam, and good morning, everyone. As you saw in our press release, our Q4 and full year performance was in line with the preliminary results we announced last month. During our prepared remarks today, Chris and I will provide additional context on the drivers of our performance. I’ll also provide an update on the immediate steps we are taking to accelerate our strategy as we transition into new BD, and I’ll conclude with our fiscal 2026 guidance and outlook on Q1, after which we’ll take your questions. With that, let’s jump in. Q4 revenue of $5.9 billion increased 7% and 3.9% organic. New BD delivered strong organic growth of 4.9%, accelerating 90 basis points sequentially. For the full year, record revenue of $21.8 billion increased 7.7% and 2.9% organic. New BD grew 3.9% organic.

We delivered adjusted diluted EPS of $3.96 for Q4 and a record $14.40 for the full year, which represents 9.6% earnings growth, including a two-point impact from tariffs. We also returned $2.2 billion to shareholders, inclusive of a $1 billion share buyback. Earlier this morning, we announced our 54th consecutive year of dividend increases. During the quarter, we had a greater than anticipated impact in macro areas we’ve been closely monitoring, specifically pharma systems vaccines and biosciences academic and government research. Vaccines are approximately 20% of our pharma systems business. While we planned for a slowdown in Q4, further reductions in demand evolved rapidly late in the quarter, as most Q4 vaccine demand typically occurs in September and continues into Q1 and Q2.

In our biosciences business, research funding remained subdued, but sales in the U.S. and EMEA continued to improve sequentially, led by strong demand for our new FACSDiscover platform. In diagnostic solutions, the business returned to positive growth in the quarter, as BD BACTEC utilization continued to recover. Together, biosciences and diagnostic solutions delivered flat growth for the quarter, excluding the impact of discontinued platforms. Outside of these two areas, we delivered strong growth across a broad range of the portfolio, demonstrating new BD’s attractive profile with over 90% consumables revenue and a strong cadence of new innovation. This includes high single-digit growth in BD Interventional, driven by double-digit growth in PureWick and advanced tissue regeneration.

We delivered double-digit propharma growth and advanced patient monitoring, which in the first year of integration performed well ahead of our deal model and is on track to continue this momentum in fiscal 2026 and beyond. In pharma systems, biologics grew high single digits, driven by GLP-1s, and MMS had a record quarter for Alaris pump installations, including several new competitive wins, solidifying our leadership position now and for years to come as we complete our fleet upgrade in fiscal 2026. Our BD Excellence operating model helped to drive strong P&L leverage throughout the year, with adjusted gross margin up 140 basis points, fueling 80 basis points of adjusted operating margin expansion, while we invested in selling and innovation, which will continue to be our engine for growth in the new BD.

This supported robust 9.6% adjusted diluted EPS growth, inclusive of tariffs, while we also delivered on our full year goal to reach a record 25% adjusted operating margin. While we are navigating specific transitory market dynamics that are expected to continue into fiscal 2026, we have strong business fundamentals, high confidence in our continued long-term mid-single digit growth profile, and a proven track record of delivering value through periods such as this. We are acting with speed to optimize our performance during this time and emerge stronger. We’ve already begun implementing decisive actions to accelerate our strategy as we create the new BD, with a focus on boldly advancing BD Excellence across our commercial and innovation organizations, while identifying cost optimization opportunities to reinforce our commitment to long-term profitable growth. Let me highlight three specific initiatives underway.

First, as part of accelerating our focus on commercial excellence, we’re re-architecting our operating model to build a more focused, agile, vertical organization. This includes commercial teams directly aligned with each business unit to best support customer needs, drive share gains, and accelerate growth. We’re also taking immediate action to expand our sales force in targeted high-growth markets, investing an incremental $30 million to capitalize in areas that either are or have the potential to grow in the high single digits or double digits. These include opportunities such as the recent VA reimbursement for PureWick at home and new surgery innovations launching in Europe, and a 15% increase in both the PI and APM sales forces. Finally, we’ve announced that Mike Feld’s role has been expanded to include the newly created position of Chief Revenue Officer.

Mike will apply his expertise in BD Excellence to accelerate our initiatives to become a best-in-class commercial organization to deliver incremental growth. Mike will remain President of Life Sciences until the close of the RMT with Waters. Second, over the last several years, we’ve built positions in multiple attractive markets and are investing to capture opportunities in new product innovation. Going into FY26, we’ve moved nearly $50 million of corporate costs into R&D in the businesses to fuel future innovation and growth in attractive, high-growth markets such as tissue regeneration, PureWick-adjacent markets, biologic drug delivery, and connected care. Additionally, we focused investments behind planned new product launches, including our recently launched BD Encata AI-enabled platform that unifies BD device data into one intelligent ecosystem, and our next-generation BD Pyxis Pro medication dispensing platform, as well as new planned launches in APM, MDS, UCC, surgery, and MMS.

We are pleased we also recently received 510(k) clearance for Hemisphere Stream, our continuous non-invasive blood pressure monitoring module. An impressive clearance in less than 30 days paves the way for commercial launch in 2026. Third and finally, we initiated a two-year $200 million cost-out program. Proactively addressing stranded corporate costs with approximately half expected this year. Before I turn it over to Chris to provide additional color on our performance, on behalf of the leadership team, I want to take a moment to thank Chris for his leadership, hard work, and dedication to BD over the past four years. I’m confident the CFO transition ahead will be seamless and wish Chris well in his new endeavors. With that, I’ll turn it to Chris.

Chris DelOrefice, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Becton, Dickinson and Company (BD): Thanks, Tom. Before I begin, I want to take a moment to thank the entire team at BD. It has been a privilege and a career highlight to serve as the CFO of this company and getting to work hand in hand with our talented and committed colleagues to advance the world of health. I am proud of the accomplishments we achieved together that enabled us to deliver against our BD 2025 strategy, including the meaningful work to advance the margin profile of BD while simultaneously transforming our portfolio that has us well positioned for the future. I look forward to partnering with Vitor Roque and my entire leadership team to ensure a seamless transition as BD enters its next phase of value creation. Let’s pivot to our performance results, starting with revenue.

Organic growth was led by high single-digit growth in BD Interventional, with strong performance across our growth platforms. This includes double-digit growth in UCC, driven by PureWick, and high single-digit growth in Surgery, led by our advanced tissue regeneration platform, including continued strong adoption of Phasix resorbable mesh. Growth in PI reflects strength across the oncology portfolio and Rotorex. In BD Medical, mid-single digit organic growth was led by APM, which grew double digits on a pro-pharma basis, with strong growth across all product lines. We feel really good about the momentum in APM continuing into FY26, which will be further supported by significant sales force expansion currently underway. MDS also delivered a strong quarter with solid mid-single digit growth in our vascular access management portfolio.

In MMS, we achieved a record sales quarter for Alaris pump installations, and we feel good about our strong backlog of committed contracts in dispensing. Lastly, in pharma systems, strong performance in biologics continued with high single-digit growth driven by GLP-1s. This was offset by lower demand for vaccine products. In BD Life Sciences, DS returned to positive growth in the quarter with a greater than 300 basis point improvement in growth sequentially, driven by our molecular platforms and continued recovery in BD BACTEC utilization, which exceeded 85% of historical levels in the U.S. In BDB, as Tom shared, research spending remained subdued, but sales continued to improve sequentially in the U.S. and EMEA, led by demand for our new BD FACSDiscover platform.

As a combined unit, BDB and DS increased approximately low single digits on a reported basis and was approximately flat on a currency-neutral basis, excluding the impact of discontinued platforms. Rounding out the life sciences segment, solid growth in specimen management was driven by the BD Vacutainer portfolio, partially offset by China market dynamics. Turning to the P&L, in Q4, as Tom shared, we continued strong execution down the P&L with momentum from BD Excellence while investing in key growth areas. We delivered adjusted gross margin of 54.2% and adjusted operating margin of 25.8%, including an impact from tariffs of about 140 basis points. Adjusted diluted EPS of $3.96 grew 3.9%, including a six-point tariff impact.

For the full year, adjusted gross margin of 54.7% and adjusted operating margin of 25% increased by 140 and 80 basis points year-over-year, respectively, inclusive of absorbing about a 40 basis point impact from tariffs. We delivered adjusted diluted EPS of $14.40, which represents strong growth of 9.6%, including a two-point tariff headwind. We continue to execute against our cash flow and capital allocation strategy with fiscal 2025 free cash flows of $2.7 billion. Underlying free cash flow was strong overall and in line with our long-term target, and inclusive of Alaris remediation, tariffs, and other discrete payments, free cash flow conversion was 64%. We ended the fiscal year with net leverage of 2.8 times and made progress towards our net leverage target of 2.5 times. With that, I’ll turn it back to Tom.

Tom Polen, Chairman, Chief Executive Officer, and President, Becton, Dickinson and Company (BD): Thanks, Chris. As we look ahead, we remain focused on executing the Waters transaction. The combination of our biosciences and diagnostic systems business with Waters continues to be a significant strategic and financial opportunity to unlock value for our investors. Our teams are partnering exceptionally well to set up a successful combination and momentum for the new company. Last month, we received FTC clearance and remain on track to close around the end of the first quarter of calendar year 2026, subject to obtaining required regulatory approvals and customary closing conditions. We’ve begun executing our new BD strategy, and the work we’ve done since establishing BD 2025 has set the foundation for the long-term sustainable success of the new BD. During this period of strategic progress, we delivered $5.4 billion of organic growth, the most substantive period of organic growth in BD’s history.

We created multiple new growth platforms, achieved best-in-class adjusted gross and operating margin expansion near the top of our peer group, and increased adjusted operating margin to 25% in FY25. A record level for BD with more room ahead. We see a clear opportunity to drive further commercial momentum. New BD will be a pure-play med tech company with a deep innovation pipeline in attractive markets and a best-in-class consumables revenue profile of over 90%. Our growth strategy is supported by BD Excellence, a differentiated capability we’ve created that is driving gross margin improvement, operating effectiveness, cash generation, and fueling reinvestment in innovation and commercial capabilities. To give some color on the benefits we’re seeing, in fiscal 2025, consumables quality hit record highs with a 50% reduction in manufacturing non-conformances. Further, we delivered world-class gross productivity improvements of over 8% in our plants this past year.

These productivity gains enabled more production with less CapEx, achieving the lowest CapEx to revenue ratio in over a decade. We expect momentum to continue in FY26. We also plan to deliver an enhanced capital allocation strategy that prioritizes internal investment, share repurchases, and a reliable and increasing dividend, with focus tucked in M&A in targeted high-growth markets, all with a focus on steadily increasing ROIC. We expect to significantly improve free cash flow conversion, excluding one-time impacts resulting from the Waters transaction, including OUS tax payments. We continue to see share repurchases as a value-creating opportunity, given our view of the intrinsic value of BD. We plan to execute another $250 million share buyback this quarter, in addition to using at least half of the $4 billion in cash proceeds from the Waters transaction following the closing, with a balance for debt repayment.

In summary, we see new BD delivering consistent mid-single digit revenue growth over the long term, with margin expansion driven primarily by gross margin fueled by our BD Excellence business system. Moving to our fiscal 2026 guide. I’ll start with our guidance for WholeCo BD and then provide color on our expectations for new BD post the Waters transaction. We’re taking a prudent and transparent approach with our guidance framework. This includes low single-digit revenue growth as our starting point for the year and includes the following assumptions. First, regarding Alaris Capital installations, fiscal 2026 is the last year of our three-year remediation commitment. We expect sales to remain strong and above our historical run rate. However, compared to fiscal 2025’s record install levels, this creates a headwind to growth of over 100 basis points.

Second, we expect China to decline in the mid-teens as government policies, including volume-based procurement, continue, which will impact growth by about 100 basis points. Our assumptions include China VBP reaching 80% coverage of our portfolio by the end of FY26. Third, we are assuming reductions in vaccination rates will continue to drive conservative ordering patterns in pharma systems vaccines. As we’ve said, vaccines are about 20% of pharma systems revenue, and our guidance assumes a decline of approximately 25%, which is an impact to growth of about 50 basis points. Excluding vaccines, we expect pharma systems to grow mid to high single digits, supported by continued strong growth in biologics. As you can tell, our guidance includes a thoughtful approach to the macro environment. The combined headwinds from these three factors impact about 10% of BD revenue.

Across the remaining 90% of the portfolio, we expect to drive mid-single digit growth, including continued strength across our BDI, connected care, and medical essentials portfolios, fueled by commercial investments and our strong innovation pipeline. We’re confident in delivering overall mid-single digit growth over the long term as these dynamics exit and we continue to advance our strong core business fundamentals. Based on current spot rates, currency is estimated to be a tailwind to revenue of about 90 basis points. Moving down the P&L, we expect continued strong adjusted operating margin consistent with FY25 of about 25%. This includes absorbing an incremental $185 million, or 80 basis points year-over-year headwind from tariffs, in line with what we’ve previously communicated. Excluding tariffs, the primary driver of margin expansion is expected to continue to come from gross margin, powered by BD Excellence, along with some leverage in shipping and G&A.

For tax, we expect our adjusted effective tax rate to be between 14% and 15%. Given these considerations, we are setting our initial adjusted diluted EPS guidance in a range of $14.75-$15.05. Excluding the year-over-year tariff headwind, we expect EPS growth at the midpoint to be high single digits, which is the right way to think about our business longer term. As you think about fiscal 2026 phasing, we expect Q1 revenue to be down low single digits due to the items we covered. This includes a tough year-over-year comparison in biosciences, which also reflects prior year licensing revenue dynamics, before we move to easier comparison periods beginning in Q2 and order timing in our medical essentials portfolio. We expect Q1 adjusted diluted EPS to be in the range of $2.75-$2.85.

Inclusive of tariffs, which we anticipate will be most prominent in Q1 and continue through Q3, and about a 5% headwind to the tax rate due to a prior year comparison. I’ll now provide some context for how to think about new BD for the full fiscal year following the deal closing, which is expected to be around the end of the first quarter of calendar year 2026, subject to obtaining required regulatory approvals and customary closing conditions. We expect new BD’s FY26 revenue growth and margin profiles to be similar to WholeCo. This includes BDB and DS revenue and operating income moving to Waters, along with conveyed costs and a half a year of TSA income. Below operating income on a pro forma basis, we expect Newco’s tax rate will be about 200 basis points higher, driven largely by NICS.

Collectively, including the use of the cash distribution proceeds associated with the transaction and a higher tax profile. Based upon projected close timing, we expected new BD pro forma adjusted EPS growth to be over 200 basis points higher than WholeCo. In summary, as we close out fiscal 2025, we are excited to start the next chapter of BD. As we navigate transitory headwinds in contained areas, our broader portfolio is doing well, and we are actively investing in high-growth, high-margin areas. Combined with actions underway to unlock the untapped commercial potential in the new BD portfolio and reallocate resources, we are building the mechanisms to emerge stronger. We are confident in our long-term mid-single digit growth profile and our ability to outperform our served markets.

With the upcoming combination of biosciences and diagnostic solutions with Waters as a near-term catalyst and an attractive capital allocation strategy, we are well positioned to deliver value for our shareholders both in the near and long term. With that, let’s start the Q&A session. Operator, can you please assemble our queue?

Earnings Call Operator, Call Moderator: Yes, sir. At this time, if you would like to ask a question, please press Star One. If at any time your question is answered, you may remove yourself from the queue by pressing Star Two. In order to allow for broad participation, please limit yourself to one question and one follow-up question only. Lastly, to provide optimal sound quality, please pick up your handset while you ask your question. Our first question will come from Travis Steed with Bank of America. Please go ahead.

Travis Steed, Analyst, Bank of America: Hey, good morning, everybody. Thanks for the question. I guess I’ll start with, first of all, kind of bigger picture. This guidance for new BD here. Just how does that kind of reflect the conservatism you’ve kind of put in place? You can have confidence that this is a year that you can deliver on the initial guide. Is that going to be kind of the same for EPS and margins as well, that you have kind of the same confidence to deliver on this guidance?

Tom Polen, Chairman, Chief Executive Officer, and President, Becton, Dickinson and Company (BD): Hey, Travis, good morning, and thank you for the question. Yeah, I think, as you just described, what we want to make sure we’re doing is clearing the table on the macro dynamics and taking a prudent approach to our guide framework as we launch into the new BD. What you’re seeing is we’re incorporating our updated view on the operating environment, including a sharper view on certain areas of the portfolio. Particularly vaccines, as we’ve seen vaccine patterns, as I outlined on the call. Obviously, the success of Alaris over the last year and how we’ve been running ahead of performance there. That just creates a natural headwind as we go into 2026. Still a very strong year in 2026, a year that we expect continued share gains built into that plan as well. A natural lapping of the success of being ahead of.

Our commitment to the FDA on remediation. Obviously, China. We’ve built in a prudent approach to China. What we’ve seen in terms of VBP. What we haven’t done is we haven’t built any improvements in the macro environment into our outlook. We think that’s, again, the most prudent thing to do. If things improve, that could be an opportunity. Again, we think it’s really important to clear the table on those macro dynamics, have them built into our plan in a very prudent way as we start and launch the new BD. As you said, we have a very strong track record on continued margin expansion. BD Excellence, you saw this past year, has very strong momentum. We’re continuing that momentum into FY2026. You saw the margin expansion in 2025.

You’re continuing to see that strong margin expansion underlying in 2026, fully offsetting tariffs. That flows through, right? EPS performance is driven largely by that continued gross margin expansion from BD Excellence.

Travis Steed, Analyst, Bank of America: Great. Thanks a lot. I don’t know if there’s anything you want to point out on kind of the Q1 guide versus the full year and how to get confidence that this is not a ramp year and the Q1 is kind of fully baked as well.

Tom Polen, Chairman, Chief Executive Officer, and President, Becton, Dickinson and Company (BD): Yeah, sure. Good question. As we think about, obviously, the factors that I described, Alaris, vaccines, China, we’re building those into Q1. Q1 guide reflects those full year headwinds, as well as the BDB comp and MedEssentials timing that we talked about. Some of the areas, particularly vaccines, their greatest weighting is in Q1. You have a disproportionate impact of vaccines in the quarter. I think we then expect growth to step up in Q2 and Q3, which will likely be our strongest quarters in the year. I think very unique this year is the phasing does not rely on any back half heroics, right? We’re not assuming that at the end of the year. We’re not assuming macro relief in the base either, as we describe that. We’re confident in the step-ups.

We also see comps easing in Q2 and Q3, as well as we continue to drive the continued strong momentum in areas like APM, advanced tissue regeneration, PureWick, dispensing, biologics, right? That 90% of the portfolio that we still see continuing to grow strong mid-single digits, and that you heard us announce some incremental selling investments behind those areas of both high growth, but also higher margin areas, which fuels our strategy as well. Thank you for the question, Travis.

Earnings Call Operator, Call Moderator: Thank you. Our next question will come from Patrick Wood with Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.

Beautiful. Thanks so much. Tom, in the remarks you guys were opening with, you mentioned capital allocation a bunch of times and incremental investment in the base business as well. Given where your stock is, appreciate the extra being done in Q4 of the buybacks and things like that. Is there not a temptation just to get after the RMT even more aggressive in returning capital to shareholders, just given where the yield on the stock is and the fact that you guys get swung around so much by small differentials in organic growth? Why not just get extra aggressive, even beyond what you’re suggesting now, and just buy back a ton of stock? Is there any reason not? Is it just that the payback on the base business is critical? Help us understand that capital allocation framework.

Yeah. Go ahead.

Chris DelOrefice, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Becton, Dickinson and Company (BD): Yeah. Hi, Patrick. It’s Chris. Yeah, thanks for the question. Look, what we’ve said is we’re going to continue to focus on cash generation. As we generate cash above our plan, we’re going to be in the market based on what we see as the intrinsic value of the stock and be aggressive with share buybacks, thus the incremental $250 million. It’s important to note that we’re trying to be disciplined around kind of a net leverage ratio. We did show progress through the year. We went from three times down to 2.8 times. I think, importantly, the Waters transaction here is a huge value creation unlock. As you know, there’s $4 billion of proceeds there, of which we said at least half of those will go to the share buybacks.

That actually creates an opportunity post-spin where you’re going to see our earnings profile increase in terms of the growth rate by over 200 basis points. I think, importantly, the value that BD shareholders will get on the earnings that moves to Waters as part of the spin is coming at a significant premium multiple, almost two times where it’s trading at BDX, approaching 20 times. I think, importantly, when you look at kind of new BD and the EPS, it would imply a trading multiple of about 10 times against an extremely attractive financial profile. When you think of the leadership positions, we have. A mid-20% margin profile, an earnings profile that’s going to be high single digits, right? We’re having the impact of tariffs this year.

If you extract that, our guide implies high single digits, plus it’s going to improve by 200 basis points, strong cash generation. We are definitely going to be in the market with those cash proceeds and see this as a significant value creation opportunity.

Tom Polen, Chairman, Chief Executive Officer, and President, Becton, Dickinson and Company (BD): Hey, Patrick, maybe just to add on to Chris’s very good comments there is, as you said, we see the intrinsic value of the company significantly higher than it’s trading today and a real value disconnect, which is why we also announced the incremental $250 million buyback effective, essentially, immediately early this quarter. We’ll continue to, obviously, as we close the transaction, execute at least half of the $4 billion into a share buyback, which will by itself then accelerate, as I mentioned on the call, at least 200 basis points higher EPS growth for new BD because of that than the initial guide for WholeCo. I think just maybe to give a little bit more color on what Chris shared, if you look at, we’re really pleased with the transaction with Waters. Both teams are working phenomenally well together.

As I shared, we just got FTC clearance on the transaction. We’re moving forward to our timeline. The pace and progress of the separation and integration is certainly very much on track. If you look at the current Waters share price and obviously our percent ownership in the transaction, that translates to about $50 per BD share that’s embedded in our current share price. What that means is that if you take that $50 of value that’s just for that part of the business that’s embedded in our price, the remaining piece then is trading at a 10 times multiple. Obviously, as you think about the new BD, we have a presence in a wide range of attractive markets. There’s 10% of the portfolio that’s going through some cyclical dynamics that we made very clear. They’re contained dynamics.

The other 90% of the portfolio is continuing to grow solid mid-single digits. We’re number one in 90% of the markets we play in. Mid to high 20% margins, mid-20% today, we see continued expansion going forward, and a strong recurring cash flow profile with a shareholder-friendly capital allocation policy. We don’t see that as a profile of a 10-time stock, which is, to your point. That is why we’re buying in with now in Q1, and we’ll continue to do so, obviously, as cash proceeds come in. It’s an area that we’ve prioritized our capital allocation strategy for. We certainly see, from a BDX shareholder perspective, you’ve got new BD EPS, there’s buyback accretion, there’s some interest benefits, you’ve got the Waters ownership being very accretive. All while providing improving strategic clarity, capital allocation, and a long-term value creation setup for our shareholders.

We appreciate the question and are happy to provide that additional color.

Very clear. All good there. Thanks, guys.

Earnings Call Operator, Call Moderator: Thank you. Our next question will come from Larry Biegelsen with Wells Fargo. Please go ahead.

Hey, guys. Good morning. Thanks for taking the question. One on China, the expectation that fiscal 2026 is down mid-teens was a little bit weaker than I would have expected. Just remind us of what China was in Q4 on an organic basis and full year 2025. I apologize if I missed that in the slides.

Tom Polen, Chairman, Chief Executive Officer, and President, Becton, Dickinson and Company (BD): Thanks, Larry, for the question. We were down high single digits organic in the quarter in Q4. We want to take a prudent approach to our guide going forward as we think about where VBP could play out, continued primarily in the BD Interventional segment, as we’ve described before. I think really that just continuing to watch that and recognizing it is difficult to really call China and how that market will evolve. We also still believe that it will have progressed through at least 80% of our portfolio will have gone through VBP in 2026. We also recognize that post-separation, China will be about 4% of our revenue, which sets us up in future years for an easier base compare there. That’s what we’ve built in, again, to our assumptions and haven’t included any improvements in that macro environment in our prudent guide.

One follow-up, and also. I’d be remiss if I didn’t say, Chris, congratulations on the new role. I enjoyed working with you, and good luck. Tom, I’d love to hear your updated thoughts on the new BD strategy and the earnings algorithm because I think it’s unique in MedTech. You talked a lot about it during the conference season in September. About the mid-single digit growth, some leverage, and at least 50% of free cash flow going to share buybacks, which I think is unique. Talk about the rationale and if the new BD can grow EPS double digits. You talked about 200 basis points faster than the current BD. Thanks for taking the question.

Yeah, thank you, Larry. Really, really good question. As I just described a little bit as part of Patrick’s response, we’re really excited about the new BD as a focused MedTech leader, again, with presence in a wide range of very attractive markets that you’re seeing us lean into heavily in an uptempoed way, taking actions around our commercial excellence to really drive optimal performance in areas. We’re putting additional Salesforce investments behind those, and we’re doubling down, reallocating costs within our cost structure from corporate into the businesses, into R&D, into fast-growing high-margin spaces, areas like urinary incontinence, adjacent spaces to that, connected care areas, tissue reconstruction, biologic drug delivery, all markets that are attractive and that we also have leading positions in.

We do see, we’re very confident, I think we’ve said that 10 times on the call, we remain very confident in our long-term mid-single digit growth profile. We’re delivering that in 90% of the business. Even in the near term, we have, again, a portion of the business in a contained way that is going through dynamics, some of which are a result of our own success, Alaris. We’re continuing to increase our free cash flow conversion, as Chris shared in his remarks. We think that profile, as you mentioned, there’s a really unique opportunity within the MedTech industry to take that profile and translate it into a continual compounder, utilizing that cash generation to continue to buy back shares, create compounding earnings growth.

You take on top of all of that our BD Excellence business system, which you’ve seen us build over the last several years, and you’ve seen us start doing things that are setting records for the company, right? Record productivity, best in class productivity, not just in our industry, but across most all industries at 8%. You’re seeing us hit strides in our capital, use of capital, and getting more out of those investments. Again, we hit a more than 10-year high capital as percentage of revenue this past year. You’re seeing safety at a record level. You’re seeing quality at a record level. You’re seeing our service levels at a record level, all because of BD Excellence. We think we’re still in early innings there from a margin expansion opportunity, which fuels that profile. As you mentioned, we think we have a very prudent, thoughtful approach.

To value creation going forward that fits really well with who BD is. From a portfolio perspective, what that means from a margin and cash flow generation perspective, and how we create maximal value in a steady, durable way for our shareholders.

Earnings Call Operator, Call Moderator: Thank you. Our next question comes from Robbie Marcus with JPMorgan. Please go ahead.

Oh, great. Good morning, and thanks for taking the questions. I wanted to ask on Alaris, it’s set to be over 100 basis point headwind in fiscal 2026. How should we think about what kind of benefit it was in fiscal 2025? Were there any quarters that it really benefited? I remember $400 million to $450 million is the normal run rate. Is that still a good normalized run rate now that the installed base has pretty much been upgraded after the relaunch? I have a follow-up.

Chris DelOrefice, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Becton, Dickinson and Company (BD): Yeah, Robbie, it’s Chris. Yeah, thanks for the question. I guess as you think of ’26, right, versus 2025. Two comments. One, as you think of how we relaunched Alaris, which has been extremely successful, right, when you look at this and has given us the opportunity to not only lock up, but enhance leadership position in the market. Really proud of the team there. The relaunch really started progressing through 2025, right? The beginning, the front end of 2025, has the more difficult growth comp when you think of the contribution versus 2024, and then it moderates as you go back through the end of 2025. Actually, that’s part of the Q1 dynamic. Alaris is actually one of the highest comps that we’re cycling over in terms of contribution to growth in 2026 because it was a favorable comp in 2025.

From a full year standpoint, I think just think of what we shared on the call around 2026 is about a 100 basis point headwind heading into 2026. That’s kind of largely what played out in 2025. With that said, as you think of Alaris’s contribution to performance in 2025. All the other market headwinds that we had experienced in 2025 were actually slightly above the total benefits we got from Alaris. Hopefully that helps give you some color as you think of Q1 in 2026 being the hardest comp with Alaris in terms of contribution to growth and then the full year impact.

Tom Polen, Chairman, Chief Executive Officer, and President, Becton, Dickinson and Company (BD): Robbie, maybe let me give you a little bit of color on how we think about it going forward. First off, as we shared, we’re really pleased with how the team has executed. They’ve done an outstanding job remediating ahead of commitment on a massive scale. We’ve locked in our install base and leadership for many years to come. That’s really allowing us to pivot heavily to share gains and growth opportunities, not only in Alaris, which of course, as the market leader, the remaining market is smaller. We’re going to be very focused on share gains there, as well as using our sales team and MMS to drive growth in additional areas of the portfolio. We’ve got the perfect timing with the launch of Pyxis Pro.

Obviously, we’ve got pharmacy automation there, a number of new launches, including Encata, that they’ll be able to pivot focus to. Now with that success of refreshing our fleet, we will see that, of course, we’ve got the 2026 headwind of about 100 basis points. For modeling purposes, as you think about beyond fiscal year 2026, given that will be the last year of remediation, you’ll see the comps then roll after. That would lead to about a 200 basis point headwind for Alaris in a sequential year. What happens is, longer term, you’re now at a normalized run rate. The fleet replacement cycle will turn into a tailwind again, essentially as you move into the 2030s. The fleet that we’ve just installed in the marketplace starts hitting that eight-year or so replacement cycle again. We see it then more normalizing thereafter.

Great. Thanks for the clarification.

And.

Go ahead, Robbie.

Just a quick follow-up. Chris, I’ll also wish you the best at your new role. I wanted to ask on margins. I appreciate the slide and the bridge you got there. Historically, it’s been difficult for medical device companies to show positive operating margin expansion when they’re kind of 3% or below on organic growth. Just walk us through some of the levers you can pull to drive what feels like underlying operating margin expansion offsetting tariffs, given there’s not a lot of revenue growth to offset it. Thanks.

Chris DelOrefice, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Becton, Dickinson and Company (BD): Yeah, thanks. Yeah, thanks, Robbie. I appreciate that. Look, this is the power of BD Excellence, right? I mean, we just executed FY 2025. We had 140 basis points improvement in gross margin, 80 basis points on operating margin. That included absorbing 40 basis points of tariff. This is what exactly we said would happen. It started at the end of 2024 into 2025. Importantly, that becomes an opportunity for us to compound earnings at an attractive rate, right? We almost delivered double-digit growth in 2025. Despite absorbing the tariff impact, which was two points. Most importantly, reinvest back in the business, right, and drive incremental investment in selling, most notably, which we did delever in the back half of 2025. You saw that. As you think of 2026, we’re basically going to have three quarters of the year with a tariff impact in there. Despite that.

We are still going to be about flat. It implies basically an 80 basis point improvement in operating margin. The significant majority of that is going to play out exactly the same way. It’s coming from gross margin. And we’re doing the same thing. We’re going to invest. We’re starting these investments, building on what we did in Q4. You’re going to see selling deleverage in the first quarter, most notably, and slowly moderate throughout the year as we cycle the investments we put in Q4. We will get a little bit of leverage in G&A, and shipping is something that we consistently strive for with the incremental cost-out program that we announced as well. That will start in the front end of the year, but as we build through the year, that’ll become more prominent as we move through the back half of the year.

I do think you can look at this as a very attractive profile. The power of BD Excellence, reinvesting back at the business. If you look at the midpoint of our EPS growth rate of our guide and take the three and a half point plus tariff impact, the midpoint’s basically high single digits, right? Just about 7%. Even as you think of 2027, as we shared in the script, right, high single digit is the profile of earnings you should think about. We think this is one of the exciting things. It goes back to Tom’s point around a great opportunity to invest in a company that can compound earnings despite macro environment.

Earnings Call Operator, Call Moderator: Thank you. We’ll take our last question from Rick Wise with Stifel. Please go ahead.

Tom Polen, Chairman, Chief Executive Officer, and President, Becton, Dickinson and Company (BD): Good morning, Tom. Hi, Chris. I was reflecting listening to you, Tom. Just, gosh, I think I’ve covered Becton now maybe 30 years. I mean, Becton’s always done an amazing job on consistently reducing costs. And you talked about the $200 million this year. I’m more fascinated and hoping to dig in further on the three major initiatives: the operating model change and the commercial team alignment or realignment, the targeted sales team focus, Mike Feld’s new role. I was hoping you could expand on your comments. Beyond just the cost reduction stuff, I mean, these seem like meaningful moves and maybe with longer-term implications. Talk about the impact, if you would, for new BD as a whole. When do we start to see the benefits of these initiatives? Maybe talk us through the implications, if there are, for divisional growth or margins.

Just if you could dig into all that, do you feel like I’m characterizing it right here?

I do, Rick. Good morning, and thanks for the question. Yeah, I’d love to share a little bit more about those. As I said, we’re really focusing on uptempoing and leaning in heavily to the launch of new BD and capitalizing on the opportunities that we have there. First, we’re starting with a really strong foundation, having built multiple growth platforms and creating and embedding BD Excellence over the last several years in our operations as we executed our 2025 strategy. We want to take that excellence and that performance that you’re seeing happen in our operations. We want to take that now into commercial and into innovation, right? We want excellence everywhere, every day. That includes, right, not only in our delivery side within our operations, but within our commercial side and our innovation agenda. You’re seeing us take action against that.

As we think about the new BD post the Waters close, as I said, we’re really uptempoing the new BD, moving at a pace and taking actions to accelerate that strategy and reinforce our commitments to delivering long-term profitable growth. Building off of BD Excellence momentum and the success in operations, as I said, we’re extending that core competency to the commercial side. That starts with expanding Mike Feld’s role as we get to the close of the Waters transaction, as he takes on the role of Chief Revenue Officer. First time we’ll have had that role in the company. Mike brings deep domain expertise in Kaizan, in Lean, in BD Excellence, where he’ll be using that and applying it to the commercial organization to accelerate our initiatives there.

Taking what is a good organization today, you do not get to market leadership in 90% of your markets without being good commercially. We think there is another level of world-class that we are going to be driving forward, just like we have done to build true world-class performance within our operations side. Having a single point of responsibility in Mike, he is going to be working with our segments and our businesses, advancing commercial rigor and pace, arming our teams with the latest tools and analytics. There is a lot of great technology to apply to drive that next level of world-class performance today. Re-architecting our commercial operating model, moving sales direct line into the businesses like we talked about. We also talked about putting increased dollars, about $30 million more than the normal run rate, behind selling in very specific targeted high-growth markets.

They happen to be high-margin markets as well. I shared some examples there. Markets like PI, APM, which is tracking well ahead of our deal model. In 2025, it delivered well ahead of our deal model, continued to deliver well ahead of the deal model in 2026. We’re doubling down there. 15% increase in their sales force, 15% increase in the PI sales force. We’re putting more money behind, right? We got a great win with the VA, the Veterans Administration now, fully reimbursing PureWick at home, the first big contract that we have with full at-home reimbursement. We’re putting sales forces behind that to help veterans access that technology. We’ve got some great new launches in surgery happening in Europe. We’re putting investments behind those. Doubling down to accelerate already strong high single-digit, double-digit growth areas of momentum.

We constantly, as you said, look at our cost structure and say, "Are we spending in the ways that give us the best return?" We went through that look and we said, "We’re going to move $50 million of corporate costs into the businesses to further fund innovation in some of the really exciting areas that we have." In some cases, that’s investing behind launches like Pyxis Pro or a PureWick Portable or a Hemisphere Stream or others. In other situations, and the majority of that money is going into the next phase of innovations. We see attractive spaces adjacent to PureWick that we want to capitalize on and create the next PureWick. We see opportunities to expand in tissue regeneration. We’re having great growth in biologic drug delivery. It’s now more than half of pharma systems.

We want to continue that innovation leadership in that category and double down on some innovation opportunities there. With Bilal now on board, we’ve actually rotated all of our software development from the corporate team under Bilal. He’s got a whole series of innovations that he wants to really invest behind that we’re excited by. Like most R&D investments, those will take a couple of years to bring new products to market. I think we’ll see the commercial investments certainly start paying off within this year, starting to see some benefits of that and scaling up into the next years. What we’re really focused on is balancing, looking through a microscope to drive the quarter and the year in the very near term. We talked about some of those accelerated actions we’re taking on the commercial side to do that.

We’re also keeping our eye on the telescope to ensure that we emerge stronger from this near-term environment that we’re navigating and drive a durable growth profile that’s led by commercial excellence, led by innovation. To make sure that, again, we deliver a strong, durable, long-term profile that we’ve talked about here on the call today.

Chris DelOrefice, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Becton, Dickinson and Company (BD): That’s a great answer. I’ll just say a quick follow-up more quickly. Just when you, Chris, highlighted the 20, or I think you did, Tom, the 25% operating margin targets. And you’re not that far away. You said, "I think there’s more room ahead." Just maybe expand on your thinking there. I mean, what are you dreaming longer term over the next, whatever, three to five years? Thank you so much.

Tom Polen, Chairman, Chief Executive Officer, and President, Becton, Dickinson and Company (BD): Yeah, thanks for the question. We won’t certainly put out the number that we’re heading towards on operating margin. Maybe some of the color I could share is we are at 25%. We ended 25% just in line with our analyst state commitment that we made in 2021. We’re really pleased to have delivered on that 25% by the end of 2025 commitment. That includes jumping over a kind of a last-minute 40 basis point headwind from tariffs and still delivering on that. Great work by our team in that. BD Excellence had a really important role to play there. BD Excellence is going to continue to be a major driver of our margin expansion strategy. As we think about op margin expansion, we do see room ahead. We see that continuing to be driven by gross margin expansion.

BD Excellence and the investments that we’re making in our manufacturing network consolidation and our operational excellence and productivity improvements will continue to fuel that. Our innovation pipeline and the markets that we’re investing in are also important. It is not by accident you’re hearing me talk about investing in higher growth and higher margin spaces, both in where we’re putting additional channel resources and where we’re putting additional R&D dollars. We see mix as having an important role as we think about margin progression continuing to go forward. We see that as a real opportunity from a gross margin perspective. If we look at us versus peer groups, our portfolio in general has a lower gross margin profile. We have an extremely efficient cost base. We see opportunities to continue to grow that gross margin line. We’ve been doing it the last two years.

We see good runway ahead there. Really appreciate the question, Rick.

Earnings Call Operator, Call Moderator: That does conclude today’s question and answer session. At this time, I’d like to turn the floor back over to Tom Polen for any additional or closing remarks.

Tom Polen, Chairman, Chief Executive Officer, and President, Becton, Dickinson and Company (BD): Okay. Thank you, Operator. Thank you everyone for your questions and for joining us today. We look forward to updating you on our progress next quarter.

Earnings Call Operator, Call Moderator: Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. This does conclude today’s audio webcast. On behalf of BD, thank you for joining today. Please disconnect your lines at this time and have a wonderful day.

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