8.6X EBITA Too Rich for LBO Crowd-See Bloomberg article below

Becton Dickinson(BDX) announced results for the fiscal first quarter ending Dec 31,2011 with a revenues of $1.842B a decrease of 1.4% from the prior year period.EPS was $1.37(with a tax benefit) compared with $1.25 prior year an 8% increase.The revenue decline was partially attributed to a decline  in sales of products related to to the H1N1 flu epidemic partially offset by solid growth in diabetes care, women’s health care and cancer, and pen needles.BD biosciences grew 3.7% with revenues of $314M with growth in the cell analysis segment. The Company reaffirmed guidance for 2011 with 4% revenue growth.

The M&A trend continues with BD announcing the acquisition of Accuri Cytometers the Ann Arbor,MI based developer and manufacturer of personal flow cytometers for researchers, for an undisclosed sum. Baird Investment Partners exited Accuri which raised $32M from investors.

BDX stock pays a  2% dividend and is up 8.7% for a 12 month period and reached a low of $67+ on June 30,2010. During the quarter the Company repurchased $837M of common stock with plans for aggregate purchase of $1.5B.

The severity of the stock drop is curious in this “permabull” market, given that earnings and guidance are on track. Leerink Swann has an outperform on the stock commenting on the 15% decline in prior year of Pharma Systems products.We will update if any new information comes out of the conference call today.No other tools and dx stocks were big movers on this news.

Beckman Coulter Valuation at 8.6 Ebitda Leaves LBO Crowd Frigid: Real M&A – Bloomberg

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