Baxter International (BAX) AI Stock Analysis

• Market Cap: $9.07B
• Dividend Yield: 2.75%
• Average Volume (3M): 10.92M
• Price to Earnings (P/E): ―
• Beta (1Y): 0.88
• Revenue Growth: -21.20%
• EPS Growth: -325.40%
• Country: US
• Employees: 38,000
• Sector: Healthcare
• Sector Strength: 45
• Industry: Medical - Instruments & Supplies
• EPS (TTM): 0.36
• Shares Outstanding: 514,490,050
• 10 Day Avg. Volume: 10,041,073
• 30 Day Avg. Volume: 10,916,562
• PEG Ratio: -0.27
• Price to Book (P/B): 1.60
• Price to Sales (P/S): 0.87
• P/FCF Ratio: 30.35
• Enterprise Value/Market Cap: 1.86
• Enterprise Value/Revenue: 1.50
• Enterprise Value/Gross Profit: 5.00
• Enterprise Value/Ebitda: 22.04
• 1Y Price Target: $20.27
• Price Target Upside: 15.04% Upside
• Rating Consensus: Hold
• Number of Analyst Covering: 12
• EPS Forecast (FY): 1.93
• Revenue Forecast (FY): $11.35B

• Rating: 47 Neutral
• Price Target: $17.00 ▼(-3.52% Downside)
• Action: Reiterated Date: 02/13/26
• Date: Action: Reiterated 02/13/26

The score is held down primarily by weakening financial performance (unstable profitability and sharply deteriorated cash flow) and continued execution/margin risks highlighted in guidance (tariffs, Novum disruption, and back-half-weighted recovery). A short-term technical rebound and a moderate dividend provide partial support, but valuation remains difficult to underwrite with a negative P/E.

Positive Factors

Diversified Hospital & Renal portfolio

Baxter’s multi-segment business (Hospital Products and Renal) creates durable revenue diversification across acute care, home dialysis and pharmaceuticals. This reduces single-market exposure, supports cross-selling, and helps stabilize revenue through differing demand cycles in hospitals versus chronic renal care.

Healthcare systems & capital momentum

Sustained strength in hospital capital orders and connectivity solutions indicates structural demand for modernization and device interoperability. Large, recurring capital sales support long-term installed base growth, recurring service opportunities, and a more predictable revenue stream from hospital upgrades and connectivity spend.

Improved cash generation (Q4) and focus on deleveraging

Resumption of strong quarterly free cash flow and management emphasis on deploying cash to reduce leverage improves financial flexibility. Durable cash conversion supports reinvestment, R&D funding, and debt reduction initiatives, which strengthen balance sheet resilience over the 2–6 month horizon and beyond.

Negative Factors

Severe 2025 revenue collapse & profit volatility

A dramatic revenue and EBITDA swing in 2025 highlights underlying demand or reporting disruptions and implies unstable earnings quality. Persistent volatility undermines forecasting reliability, pressures margins, and raises execution risk for multi-quarter recovery plans and sustainable profitability.

Weakened cash flow & operating liquidity

Material deterioration in operating cash generation and negative FCF in 2025 increase reliance on financing and reduce headroom for strategic investments. Weak cash dynamics constrain tactical responses to cost disruption, slow deleveraging, and elevate refinancing risk if adverse conditions persist into the medium term.

Novum disruption and tariff headwinds

Ongoing product shipment holds and large tariff-related costs are structural execution and margin headwinds. Continued Novum uncertainty disrupts capital sales cadence and customer confidence, while multi-hundred-million tariff exposure erodes gross margins and requires sustained operational offsets to restore profitability.

Baxter International Business Overview & Revenue Model

Company Description

Baxter International Inc., through its subsidiaries, develops and provides a portfolio of healthcare products worldwide. The company offers peritoneal dialysis and hemodialysis, and additional dialysis therapies and services; intravenous therapies, infusion pumps, administration sets, and drug reconstitution devices; remixed and oncology drug platforms, inhaled anesthesia and critical care products and pharmacy compounding services; parenteral nutrition therapies and related products; biological products and medical devices used in surgical procedures for hemostasis, tissue sealing and adhesion prevention; and continuous renal replacement therapies and other organ support therapies focused in the intensive care unit. It also provides connected care solutions, including devices, software, communications, and integration technologies; integrated patient monitoring and diagnostic technologies to help diagnose, treat, and manage a various illness and diseases, including respiratory therapy, cardiology, vision screening, and physical assessment; surgical video technologies, tables, lights, pendants, precision positioning devices and other accessories. In addition, the company offers contracted services to various pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical companies. Its products are used in hospitals, kidney dialysis centers, nursing homes, rehabilitation centers, doctors' offices, and patients at home under physician supervision. The company sells its products through direct sales force, as well as through independent distributors, drug wholesalers, and specialty pharmacy or other alternate site providers in approximately 100 countries. It has an agreement with Celerity Pharmaceutical, LLC to develop acute care generic injectable premix and oncolytic molecules. Baxter International Inc. was incorporated in 1931 and is headquartered in Deerfield, Illinois.

How the Company Makes Money

Baxter generates revenue through multiple key streams, primarily from the sale of its hospital products and renal care solutions. The Hospital Products segment, which includes IV solutions, infusion systems, and anesthesia products, contributes significantly to the company's earnings. The Renal segment, focusing on products for patients with kidney disease, including dialysis machines and related services, also represents a substantial revenue source. Additionally, Baxter engages in strategic partnerships with healthcare providers and organizations to enhance its product offerings and expand its market reach. Ongoing investments in research and development enable Baxter to innovate and introduce new products, which further drives revenue growth. The company's focus on efficiency and cost management also plays a crucial role in maintaining profitability.

Baxter International Financial Statement Overview

Summary

Financial statement quality is deteriorating: the income statement shows extreme volatility and a severe 2025 revenue collapse with negative EBITDA margin, while cash flow weakened into negative/zero operating cash flow in 2025. The balance sheet is adequate but constrained by elevated leverage and inconsistent ROE.

Income Statement

Results are highly volatile. After solid profitability in 2023 (strong net profit margin) and modest revenue growth through 2024, 2025 shows a severe revenue collapse (down ~96.8% YoY) alongside negative EBITDA margin, even though net income remains positive—suggesting earnings were driven by factors that didn’t translate into operating profitability. Overall margins and growth trajectory look unstable, with meaningful downside risk to earnings quality.

Balance Sheet

Leverage is elevated for the period, with debt-to-equity mostly around ~1.6–2.9 and still ~1.58 in 2025, which limits flexibility. Equity remains positive, and return on equity has been strong in some years (notably 2023 and 2025), but it also swung negative in 2022 and 2024—highlighting inconsistency in underlying profitability. Balance sheet strength is adequate but pressured by debt load and earnings volatility.

Cash Flow

Cash generation weakened materially. Free cash flow was healthy in 2021–2023, but fell in 2024 and turned negative in 2025, with operating cash flow at zero in 2025. Cash flow support for reported earnings also deteriorates in the latest year (free cash flow not covering net income), increasing reliance on non-cash items or working-capital swings and raising near-term funding risk.

Breakdown	Dec 2025	Dec 2024	Dec 2023	Dec 2022	Dec 2021
Income Statement
Total Revenue	11.24B	10.64B	10.36B	10.06B	12.15B
Gross Profit	3.38B	3.98B	4.15B	3.55B	4.72B
EBITDA	766.00M	1.12B	1.73B	-1.76B	2.19B
Net Income	-957.00M	-649.00M	2.66B	-2.43B	1.28B
Balance Sheet
Total Assets	20.05B	25.78B	28.28B	28.29B	33.52B
Cash, Cash Equivalents and Short-Term Investments	1.97B	1.76B	3.08B	1.72B	2.95B
Total Debt	10.00B	13.45B	14.11B	17.20B	18.31B
Total Liabilities	13.95B	18.76B	19.81B	22.39B	24.40B
Stockholders Equity	6.13B	6.96B	8.40B	5.83B	9.08B
Cash Flow
Free Cash Flow	323.00M	559.00M	1.29B	576.00M	1.53B
Operating Cash Flow	845.00M	1.02B	1.73B	1.21B	2.22B
Investing Cash Flow	2.84B	-626.00M	3.21B	-931.00M	-11.20B
Financing Cash Flow	-4.22B	-1.08B	-3.49B	-1.44B	8.24B

Baxter International Technical Analysis

• Technical Analysis Sentiment: Negative
• Last Price: 17.62
• 50DMA: Negative
• 100DMA: Negative
• 200DMA: Negative
• MACD: Positive
• RSI: Neutral
• STOCH: Neutral

Evaluating momentum and price trends is crucial in stock analysis to make informed investment decisions. For BAX, the sentiment is Negative. The current price of 17.62 is below the 20-day moving average (MA) of 19.28, below the 50-day MA of 19.90, and below the 200-day MA of 22.71, indicating a bearish trend. The MACD of -0.81 indicates Positive momentum. The RSI at 38.28 is Neutral, neither overbought nor oversold. The STOCH value of 21.38 is Neutral, not indicating any strong overbought or oversold conditions. Overall, these indicators collectively point to a Negative sentiment for BAX.

Baxter International Peers Comparison

Name	Overall Rating	Market Cap	P/E Ratio	ROE	Dividend Yield	Revenue Growth	EPS Growth
RMD	80 Outperform	$34.02B	22.47	24.81%	0.92%	9.36%	29.56%
WST	72 Outperform	$17.24B	40.29	16.68%	0.32%	4.90%	-0.26%
COO	69 Neutral	$14.06B	30.60	4.83%	―	5.06%	-4.47%
BDX	68 Neutral	$46.03B	28.46	6.93%	2.13%	8.23%	-2.04%
HOLX	66 Neutral	$16.75B	23.34	11.01%	―	1.74%	-25.29%
Sector *	51 Neutral	$7.86B	-0.30	-43.30%	2.27%	22.53%	-2.21%
BAX	47 Neutral	$9.07B	-10.24	-13.78%	2.75%	-21.20%	-325.40%

Baxter International Corporate Events

Baxter International Appoints Interim CFO Amid Leadership Transition

On March 16, 2026, Baxter International announced that executive vice president and chief financial officer Joel Grade stepped down from his CFO role and moved into an advisory, non-executive position through April 30, 2026, with his departure unrelated to any disagreement with management or the board. Subject to a transition and separation agreement, Grade will receive severance consistent with the company’s executive severance plan provisions.

Effective the same day, Baxter’s board appointed senior vice president and chief accounting officer Anita Zielinski as interim CFO, adding to her existing responsibilities while the company searches for a permanent finance chief. To reflect her expanded role, Baxter granted Zielinski an additional $50,000 in monthly compensation during her interim tenure and a $250,000 restricted stock unit award vesting after three years, and the company reiterated its full-year 2026 financial outlook, signaling continuity in financial strategy despite the leadership transition.

The most recent analyst rating on (BAX) stock is a Hold with a $17.50 price target. To see the full list of analyst forecasts on Baxter International stock, see the BAX Stock Forecast page.

Baxter International Reports Mixed Q4 Results and Outlook

Baxter International reported on Feb. 12, 2026, that fourth-quarter 2025 sales from continuing operations rose 8% to $2.97 billion on a reported basis, though adjusted diluted EPS from continuing operations fell 24% to $0.44, and GAAP results showed a $1.04 billion loss driven by goodwill impairment and a large tax valuation allowance. Segment performance was mixed, with solid growth across Medical Products & Therapies, Healthcare Systems & Technologies and Pharmaceuticals, supported by new product launches and hospital connectivity initiatives, while management cautioned that 2026 sales from continuing operations are expected to be roughly flat and guided adjusted EPS to $1.85–$2.05, signaling a focus on operational improvement after the Kidney Care divestiture.

As part of a broader board refresh announced alongside earnings, Baxter appointed veteran finance executive Michael R. McDonnell to its board and Audit Committee effective Feb. 13, 2026, while directors Cathy R. Smith and Stephen H. Rusckowski resigned the same day, reducing the board to 10 members and shifting Nominating Committee leadership to Patricia B. Morrison. The board on Feb. 11, 2026, also declared a quarterly cash dividend of $0.01 per share payable April 1, 2026, actions that collectively underscore a period of governance transition and disciplined capital management as the company works to improve execution and reinforce its long-term trajectory.

The most recent analyst rating on (BAX) stock is a Hold with a $22.00 price target. To see the full list of analyst forecasts on Baxter International stock, see the BAX Stock Forecast page.

Baxter International Completes Cash Tender Offers, Cuts Debt

On December 22, 2025, Baxter International Inc. completed the final settlement of previously announced cash tender offers targeting any and all of its 2.600% senior unsecured notes due 2026 and up to $600 million in aggregate purchase price of its 1.915% senior unsecured notes due 2027. By the early settlement date of December 8, 2025, the company had already purchased $420.589 million of the 2026 notes and $614.37 million of the 2027 notes, fully satisfying and discharging the outstanding 2026 notes and fully subscribing the 2027 note offer, with no further 2027 notes accepted thereafter; an additional $2.61 million of 2026 notes tendered by the final expiration time on December 18, 2025, were accepted at a discounted price of $960.50 per $1,000 of principal plus accrued interest, underscoring Baxter’s continued effort to actively manage and reduce its near-term debt obligations.

The most recent analyst rating on (BAX) stock is a Hold with a $19.00 price target. To see the full list of analyst forecasts on Baxter International stock, see the BAX Stock Forecast page.