With a combined revenue of $21 trillion and $2.1 trillion in profits, the 2026 Fortune 500 is the definitive list of America's largest companies.

Fortune 500

Almost $20 trillion in revenue—and a record-breaking $1.87 trillion in profits. Introducing the 2025 Fortune 500, the definitive list of the biggest companies in America.

The 300 companies on this year’s list brought in over $12.6 trillion in revenue for the latest 12 months, with the median revenue figure at $22 billion.

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Industries included in the sector are insurance and managed care, medical products and facilities, pharmacy services, and pharmaceutical companies.

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The Fortune 500, in its 70th year in 2024, ranks the biggest U.S. companies by revenue.

The 200 companies on this list are transforming industries from the inside out.

The Fortune 500, in its 69th year in 2023, ranks the biggest U.S. companies by revenue.

This year’s Fortune 500 marks the 68th running of the list.

This year’s Fortune 500 marks the 67th running of the list.

The pharmaceutical and medical equipment company makes products that aid in the treatment of health conditions such as kidney disease and hemophilia.

This year's Fortune 500 marks the 66th running of the list.

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This Deerfield, Ill. company makes devices and other products to treat hemophilia, kidney disease, immune disorders, and other chronic and acute medical conditions.

This year's Fortune 500 marks the 65th running of the list.

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This year's Fortune 500 marks the 61st running of the list. Wal-Mart claims the top spot again. See who made the list.

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Wal-Mart stayed on top as its sales crept closer to half-a-trillion dollars. Apple moved into the top five. And UnitedHealth Group continued its steady climb. 

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Through its subsidiaries, Baxter provides a portfolio of health care products in the U.S. through three segments: medical products and therapies, health care systems and technologies, and pharmaceuticals. Founded in 1931 with headquarters in Deerfield, Ill., it operates in Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Latin America, Asia, Western Europe, Canada, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand.

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Q3 2024

Baxter International (BAX): Company Profile, Stock Price, News, Rankings

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Baxter International

baxter international

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to Baxter International's Third Quarter 2024 Earnings Conference Call. Your lines will remain in a listen only mode until the question and answer segment of today's call. As a reminder, this call is being recorded by Baxter and is copyrighted material. It cannot be recorded or rebroadcast without Baxter's permission. If you have any objections, please disconnect at this time.

I would now like to turn the call over to Ms. Claire Trachtman, Senior Vice President, Chief Investor Relations Officer at Baxter International. Ms. Trachtman, you may now begin.

Good morning, and welcome to our Q3 2024 earnings conference call. Joining me today are Joe Almeida, Baxter's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer and Joel Grade, Baxter's Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. On the call this morning, we will be discussing Baxter's Q3 2024 results along with our financial outlook for the Q4 and full year 2024. With that, let me start our prepared remarks by reminding everyone that this presentation, including comments regarding our financial outlook for the Q4, full year 2024 2025, the status and anticipated timing and impact of our ongoing strategic actions, including the pending kidney care sale and cost savings initiatives. Regulatory matters and the macroeconomic environment on our results of operations contain forward looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties, and of course, our actual results could differ materially from our current expectations.

Please refer to today's press release and our SEC filings for more detail concerning factors that could cause actual results to differ materially. In addition, on today's call, non GAAP financial measures will be used to help investors understand Baxter's ongoing business performance. A reconciliation of certain non GAAP financial measures being discussed today to the comparable GAAP financial measures is included in the accompanying investor presentation and also available in our earnings release issued this morning, which are both available on our website. Please note, following the announcement of Baxter's pending sale of our Kidney Care business to Carlisle, the Kidney Care business met the conditions to be reported as a discontinued operation. Accordingly, the Kidney Care business is now reported in discontinued operations and the company's prior period results have been adjusted to reflect the discontinued operations presentation.

Restated historical results reflecting the Kidney Care segment as a discontinued operation for the prior 6 quarters can be found on Baxter's website in the Investor Relations section. Discontinued operations for 2023 also include Baxter's former biopharma solutions or BPS business, which was divested at the end of Q3 of 2023. Current and prior year periods now reflect the continuing operations of Baxter's medical products and therapies, Healthcare Systems and Technologies and Pharmaceuticals segments. Now I'd like to turn the call over to Joe. Joe?

Thank you, Claire, and good morning, everyone. We appreciate you taking the time to join us today. I will start with a brief update on the hurricane recovery progress at our North Cove, North Carolina facility, followed by some comments regarding our Q3 performance. Joel will provide a closer look at our Q3 results and our outlook for the remainder of the year. We will also share some preliminary thoughts regarding our financial outlook following the completion of the Pennant's Day of the Kidney Care business.

Then as always, we'll take your questions. As you know, Hurricane Helene caused unprecedented devastation in Western North Carolina in the closing days of September. This region is home to Baxter's Northco manufacturing facility, the largest plant in our global network and a critical source of IV and peritoneal dialysis fluids for the U. S. Market.

I want to first recognize the amazing tireless work of our Northcove team who have helped rapidly advance the ongoing site recovery efforts, while also navigating the strong personal toll. Our heart goes out to the entire community and we are so proud of what our colleagues across the Bachelor network are accomplishing daily to help return the site to normal operations. In just 6 weeks, the Northcoast team has devoted more than 1,000,000 hours collectively to restoring operations. This dedication was evidenced last week as our highest throughput IV solutions line in Northcoast was able to restart production. We also expect to restart a second IV Solutions manufacturing line in the coming week.

Together, these two lines represent their peak operation approximately 50% of the site's total production. These key milestones were achieved ahead of our original expectations. However, I want to emphasize that in coordination with FDA, the earliest that new Northco product could start to ship is in late November and more hard work remains as we return the plant to full production. Throughout this effort, our focus has remained squarely on our customers and their patients and our employees. And to this end, we have not spared any resource to ensure the needs of these key stakeholders are prioritized.

Parallel to our Northco recovery efforts, we have activated 9 sites across our global manufacturing network to help increase available U. S. Inventory to serve our patients and customers, and we work to bring Northco fully back online. As we have shared previously, we anticipate restarting Northco production in phases by the end of the year and our current expectation is that all lines in Northco will have resumed production before the end of this year. Throughout this journey, our North Cove and global teams have demonstrated an unwavering commitment to Baxter's life sustaining mission.

I also want to express our gratitude to ASPR, FDA and the state of North Carolina and AKHS among other federal state and local entities for their steadfast support. And we deeply appreciate the patience and partnership of our customers as recovery efforts continue. We will continue providing updates through baxter.com on planned recovery supply continuity and how Baxter is making a difference for its employees and the community. Now turning to our Q3 performance. Given the Penn and Say of our Kidney Care business, current and prior period results for this business are now reported as discontinued operations.

As Blair mentioned, restated historical results can be found on Baxter's website. For today's discussion, we will be focusing our commentary on total company performance in the Q3, which includes the impact of kidney care in both the current and prior periods, but excludes the impact of the biopharma solutions business, which moved to discontinued operations in the Q3 of 2023. On that basis, total company Q3 2024 sales grew 4% on both a reported and constant currency basis, in line with our prior guidance. All of our Baxter segments increased year over year on both a reported and constant currency basis. As always, we benefit from our focus on essential health care needs combined with the diversity and durability of our portfolio.

In Q3, strength in our Medical Products and Therapies and Kidney Care segments helped offset softness in the Healthcare Systems and Technologies and Pharmaceutical segments. On the bottom line, total company adjusted earnings per share across continuing and discontinued operations totaled $0.80 ahead of our guidance range of $0.77 to $0.79 per share. Performance was fueled by top line strength, continued improvements in integrated supply chain efficiency and disciplined management of operating expenses. Taking a closer look by segment, I will begin with the businesses that will comprise the new Baxter following the pending Kidney Care sale. Medical Products and Therapies led all segments with 7% growth at both reported and constant currency rates.

Filled by positive demand across the portfolio, I particularly want to highlight the strong uptake of our Novum IQ platform in the U. S, including our large volume pump and syringe pump both between those IQ safety software. The new platform is well recognized across the market as advancing pump connectivity, intelligence infusion therapy and we foresee sustained positive momentum both through existing customer upgrades and competitive conversions. Performance in this segment also benefited from strength globally in our Advanced Surgery division. Our Healthcare Systems and Technologies or HSE segment grew 1% at both reported constant currency rates.

Growth was driven by strong U. S. Performance in the Care Connectivity Solutions division, particularly for our patient support systems products, which increased low double digits in the quarter. This growth was partially offset by a decline in U. S.

Frontline care sales, largely reflecting the ongoing dynamics impacting U. S. Primary care market, which we have discussed previously, plus a difficult comparison to the prior year period, which reflected the benefit from backlog reduction efforts. Softness in international Care and Connectivity Solutions also muted overall HST growth as lower sales in China and France impacted performance in the quarter. We fully recognize the need to drive continued improvement in the growth profile for both the frontline care division and HST as a whole.

Our current expectation is that the U. S. Primary care market begins to stabilize over the coming year. In addition, we are keenly focused on enhancing performance through innovation and launching new products to augment growth in both FLC and the broader HST segment. We have several new products scheduled to launch in 2025 and beyond that we believe will contribute to improved performance for this segment over time.

Sales in our Pharmaceutical segment increased 1% on both the reported and constant currency basis. Double digit growth in drug compounding was partially offset by a high single digit decline in our Injectables and Anesthesia division. Sales of Injectables and Anesthesia were impacted by phasing of selected sales into the Q4 combined with supply constraints impacting international sales. While the performance in the quarter was disappointing, we believe the weakness is temporary and we have already observed a course correction to start the Q4. At the same time, the injectable sales force continues to enhance its new product launch capabilities and remain focused on successfully driving the commercial launch of several new injectables in 2024 and beyond.

Now shifting to our Kidney Care segment, which will be known as Phantom following its separation from Baxter. This segment grew 4% on a reported basis and 5% at constant currency driven by both demand and pricing for acute therapies and paired new dialysis products. These results reflect positive momentum as the segment prepares to operate as a separate entity. Progress on the pending sale to Carlyle continues with the process well underway. We continue to expect the sale to close in late 2024 or early 2025 subject to receipt of regulatory approvals and other customary conditions.

As you know, this sale represents a key milestone across the 3 pillar strategic transformation we announced in January 2023. These steps also included the realignment of our operating model and the divestiture of our non core biopharma solutions contract manufacturing business, both of which were executed over the course of last year. Taken together, these three transformational actions have been uniformly focused on enhancing value for all stakeholders and are powering our ongoing transformation. In addition, we remain committed to crisp execution of several initiatives across the enterprise focused on enhancing the efficiency of our operations, heightening the productivity of research and development and offsetting the impact from stranded costs that result from the pending sale of Kidney Care. Post the separation of Kidney Care, we continue to expect our business can deliver 4% to 5% top line growth and achieve an adjusted operating margin of 16.5% in 2025 with annual operating margin expansion thereafter.

I'm excited about what we have accomplished to date while also recognizing there is still more to do. Our progress as always is due entirely to the hard work and commitment of our Baxter colleagues globally. Whether these efforts involve restoring our Northco facility, powering our ongoing transformation or delivering on our goals in countless other ways, our colleagues are motivated by unparalleled dedication to advancing Baxter's mission to save and sustain lives. I salute this extraordinary team today and every day. Now I will pass it to Joel, who will provide more detail on our Q3, our outlook for the balance of the year and our trajectory following the Pending Kidney Care divestiture.

Thanks, Joe, and good morning, everyone. Before I begin, I would like to reiterate Joe's remarks regarding the presentation of our financial results for the Q3. Beginning this quarter, the Kidney Care business is now reported as discontinued operations. The company's prior period results have been adjusted to reflect the discontinued operations presentation and historical restated schedules are available on our website. For comparability purposes to previously issued guidance, commentary surrounding our Q3 performance will be provided on both a total company and continuing operations basis.

Now turning to some specific comments regarding the quarter. As Joe mentioned, in general, we're pleased with our 3rd quarter results, which came in line with our expectations on the top line and compared favorably to our previously issued guidance on the bottom line. Excluding the effect of BPS sales in the prior year period, Q3 2024 global total company sales of $3,850,000,000 increased 4% on both reported and constant currency basis. Performance in the quarter reflected better than expected sales in infusion therapies, product therapies, drug compounding and U. S.

Patient support systems, which more than offset softness in injectables and anesthesia and HST. Sales from continuing operations increased 4% on both a constant currency and reported basis with all segments contributing to growth. On the bottom line, total company adjusted earnings, including continuing operations and discontinued operations, were $0.08 per share ahead of our prior guidance of $0.77 to $0.79 per share. Earnings growth in the quarter was driven by operational performance and lower interest expense as compared to the prior year period. Adjusted earnings from continuing operations, which excludes KidneyCare and EPS from both periods totaled $0.49 per share and increased 14% compared to the prior year.

Now I'll walk through our results by reportable segments. Commentary regarding sales growth reflects growth at constant currency rates. Sales in our Medical Products and Therapies or MPT segment were $1,300,000,000 increasing 7% and coming in ahead of expectations. Within MDT, 3rd quarter sales from our infusion therapies and technologies division totaled $1,100,000,000 and increased 7%. Sales in the quarter benefited from significant growth for our U.

S. Infusion systems portfolio as the rollout of our Novum IQ pump platform continues to build momentum with orders coming in from both new and existing customers. U. S. Infusion systems sales in the quarter also benefited from strong customer demand for our Spectrum pump.

IV Solutions internationally continued to deliver solid performance, driven by favorable pricing and underlying volume demand. Mid single digit growth in nutrition globally also contributed to ICT performance in the quarter. Sales in Advanced Surgery totaled $272,000,000 and grew 7% globally. Results in the quarter reflect demand for our portfolio of hemostats and sealants as well as favorable pricing. Strong sales and operational performance in MPT resulted in adjusted operating margin of 20% for the quarter, which represented an improvement of 50 basis points year over year and 200 basis points sequentially.

For our Healthcare Systems and Technologies or HST segment, sales in the quarter were $752,000,000 and increased 1%. Within the HST segment, sales in our Care and Connectivity Solutions or CCS division were $456,000,000 growing 3%. Performance in the quarter was driven by continued strength in our U. S. Patient Support Systems or PSS business, which delivered double digit growth.

Orders for U. S. PSS Capital increased mid teens in the quarter, driven by existing accounts and competitive wins. Performance was partially offset by weaker sales outside of the U. S.

Driven by softness in China due to ongoing government policy initiatives and the delays or releases stimulus funding. In addition, sales in Western Europe declined on a year over year basis due to certain market exits and weaker demand due to delayed government funding. While year to date, we have seen strong order growth for our carrier communications and connectivity business, sales performance has been impacted by the timing of installations as many of our hospital customers are delaying installs in future periods. Our backlog is strong and we have a variable cancellation rate for this business. And as such, we see many of these installs phasing into 2025.

Finally, sales for our Global Surgical Solutions or GSS business declined as compared to the prior year period due to ongoing supply constraints, which the company continues to quickly work to remediate and expects to be largely resolved by the end of the year. Frontline care sales in the quarter were $296,000,000 and declined 2%. Growth in the quarter continued to be impacted by a difficult comparison to the prior year as backlog reductions positively contributed to growth in the prior year period. Performance in the quarter was also impacted by ongoing softness in the primary care market. We've been in close contact with our distributor partners who have also acknowledged the challenging market dynamics in U.

S. Primary care market. Our current assumption is that the market begins to stabilize over the course of 2025. Notably, HSP recognized significant expansion in operating margins during the quarter, driven by improved operational efficiency. HST 3rd quarter adjusted operating margins of 18.1% increased 2 60 basis points year over year and 2 10 basis points sequentially.

Moving on to Pharmaceuticals. Sales in this segment were $588,000,000 increasing 1%. Sales within injectables and anesthesia declined high single digits. Performance in the quarter reflected a mid single digit decline in our injectables portfolio driven by a difficult comparison to the prior year period, which benefited from a competitor being out of the market. In addition, sales in the quarter were impacted by some orders shifting to the 4th quarter and the delay of the anticipated new product launch.

Supply constraints outside the United States also impacted performance in the quarter. Lower sales in ALA anesthesia continued to weigh out performance and declined mid teens in the quarter. As Joe mentioned, we have seen sales rebound in this business to start the Q4. In addition, the injectable team continues to enhance its new product launch playbook, given the volume of new products this team is targeting to launch over the coming months years. Within drug compounding, strong demand for services continued in the quarter, resulting in double digit growth.

In the lower sales injectables and anesthesia in the quarter, pharmaceuticals margins declined both year over year and sequentially. Pharmaceuticals adjusted operating margins were 9.9% for The pharmaceuticals team is keenly focused on expanding margins from improved mix with injectables growth accelerating, taking actions to stabilize the anesthesia business, driving cost improvements in the compounding business and executing on margin improvement initiatives in the integrated supply chain. Sales in the quarter for our Kidney Care segment totaled $1,200,000,000 increasing 5%. Within kidney care, global sales for chronic therapies were $952,000,000 increasing 5%. Strong PD growth in the quarter was partially offset by the expected negative impact from certain product and market exits in our in center HD business.

Sales in our acute therapies business were $203,000,000 representing growth of 9% driven by strong demand in the United States. Other sales, which represent sales not allocated to a segment and primarily include sales of products and services provided directly through certain of our manufacturing facilities were $17,000,000 and increased 12% during the quarter. Before moving on to the rest of the P and L results, I wanted to make some comments regarding our continuing operations results. Given the reporting change moving Kidney Care business results to discontinued operations, corporate costs that had previously been allocated to the Kidney Care segment and will not convey with the Kidney Care business in the pending sale are now reported in unallocated corporate costs. These stranded costs negatively impacted Baxter's results in the quarter and prior periods, but are expected to be mostly offset in 2025 through income to be received from Vantiv under transition service agreements or TSAs as well as cost containment initiatives the company is in the process of undertaking.

As we previously stated, we currently expect to fully offset the impact of these transit costs and loss of PSA income by the end of 2027. 3rd quarter total company adjusted gross margin, including discontinued operations from Kidney Care was 42.5% and represented an increase of 80 basis points over the prior year. The year over year expansion in gross margin primarily reflects the continued efficiencies within our integrated supply chain network as well as pricing initiatives in select markets. Overall, product mix partially offset margin expansion in the quarter. Adjusted gross margin from continuing operations totaled 43.7% and declined 110 basis points versus the prior year period, driven by mix in the quarter and the impact of a contract manufacturing agreement we entered into following the sale of EPS.

Adjusted SG and A including discontinued operations from Kidney Care totaled $871,000,000 or $22,600,000 as a percentage of sales, an increase of 50 basis points from the prior year period as we continue to make select investments to support our growth objectives and new product launches. Adjusted SG and A from continuing operations totaled $665,000,000 or 24.6 as a percentage of sales, an increase of 20 basis points versus the prior year. This increase is partially offset in another P and L line item referred to as other operating income and expense, which reflects income the company has received from TSAs entered into following the VPS sales. Total adjusted R and D spending in the quarter, including discontinued operations from Kidney Care, totaled $169,000,000 and represented 4.4 as a percentage of sales, an increase of 10 basis points compared to the prior year period and reflects our continued investments in advancing new products across the portfolio and bringing innovation to patients across our segments. Adjusted R and D from continuing operations totaled $129,000,000 or 4.8 as a percentage of sales and decreased 20 basis points versus prior year.

These factors resulted in an adjusted operating margin of 15.6 percent inclusive of discontinued operations, an increase of 40 basis points versus prior year, driven by the factors of both as well as the favorable impact from foreign exchange. Adjusted operating margin from continuing operations totaled 14.5% and reflects an approximate $55,000,000 headwind for stranded costs, which negatively impacted operating margin by 2 40 basis points in the quarter. 2024 year to date continuing operations adjusted operating margins reflects approximately $200,000,000 or 2.50 basis points of negative impact on stranded costs. Net interest expense totaled $88,000,000 in the quarter, a decrease of $40,000,000 versus the prior year period, driven by debt repayments completed with the proceeds from our BPS divestiture. Adjusted other non operating income totaled $9,000,000 in the quarter compared to income of $7,000,000 in the prior year period.

Adjusted other non operating income from continuing operations totaled $1,000,000 in the quarter compared to income of $12,000,000 in the prior year. The total company adjusted tax rate for the quarter, including discontinued operations from Kidney Care was 13.8%, decreasing 100 basis points as compared to the prior year and came in slightly lower than expectations. The year over year decrease is primarily driven by changes in earnings mix and incremental R and D tax credit benefits in the U. S. Versus the prior year.

And as previously mentioned, total adjusted earnings were $0.80 per share for the quarter and increased 18% versus the prior year, primarily driven by improved commercial performance and a reduction in interest expense. Adjusted earnings from continuing operations totaled $0.49 per share, increasing 14% versus the prior period and reflected an $0.11 per share headwind related to stranded costs. Year to date adjusted earnings from continuing operations totaled $1.31 per share, increasing 25% versus the prior period and reflecting an approximate $0.30 per share headwind related to stranded costs. Let me conclude my remarks by discussing our outlook for the Q4 and full year 2024, including some key assumptions underpinning the guidance.

given the unprecedented impact of Hurricane Elin on the company's North Cove operations and related production, we have adjusted our full year 2024 financial outlook to reflect the estimated impact of the hurricane on our 4th quarter results. We expect the effects from the hurricane to negatively impact total company 4th quarter sales by approximately $200,000,000 including an estimated $40,000,000 to $50,000,000 impact on KidneyCare sales that approximately $150,000,000 to $160,000,000 impact on amputee sales. Total company adjusted earnings per share, including discontinued operations are expected to be negatively impacted by $0.15 to $0.20 per share. In addition, all guidance provided on a total company basis includes the impact of Pizzian Care discontinued operations and excludes the impact of BPS discontinued operations. Based on these factors for full year 2024, Baxter now expects total sales growth of 1% to 2% on reported and approximately 2% on a constant currency basis, reflecting the 100 plus basis point negative top line impact from Hurricane Elaine.

On a continuing operations basis, Baxter expects sales growth of approximately 2% on both reported and constant currency basis, inclusive of approximately 150 basis points negative impact from Hurricane Elaine. Constant currency sales guidance for the full year by reportable segments is as follows. For MPT, we now expect sales to increase 2% to 3%, reflecting a 300 plus basis point negative impact from Hurricane Elaine. Sales on our HST segment are now expected to decline low single digits, reflecting year to date results and the continued slow market recovery in U. S.

Primary care. We continue to expect pharmaceuticals to increase approximately 7%, which reflects the phasing of some injectables and anesthesia sales in the Q4 and better than expected sales in drug compounding. For Kidney Care, we now expect sales growth of approximately 2%, inclusive of an approximate 100 basis point headwind from Hurricane Elihu. This compares favorably to prior guidance and reflects the underlying momentum of this business. Now turning to our outlook for other P and L line items.

We continue to expect full year adjusted operating margin to increase by more than 50 basis points in 2024, inclusive of an approximate 50 basis point headwind to full year adjusted operating margin from Hurricane Elaine. On a continuing operations basis, Baxter expects adjusted operating margins to decline 90 to 100 basis points. The headwind from stranded costs is expected to impact full year 2024 adjusted operating margin by approximately 250 basis points. Full year 2023 adjusted operating margins of 14.7% reflected approximately 300 basis point negative impact from stranded costs. We expect our non operating expenses, which include net interest expense and other income expense to total approximately $320,000,000 in aggregate during 2024 or approximately $300,000,000 on a continuing operations basis.

We now anticipate a total company's full year adjusted tax rate of approximately 22%. On a continuing operations basis, we anticipate a full year tax rate of approximately 18.5%. We expect our diluted share count to average 511,000,000 shares for the year. Based on all these factors, we now anticipate full year total company adjusted earnings, excluding special items and inclusive of discontinued operations of $2.90 to $2.94 per diluted share. This guidance reflects the $0.15 to $0.20 per share headwind from Hurricane Helene.

Additionally, given that the Kidney Care business met the criteria to be classified as a discontinued operation in the quarter, U. S. GAAP guidance requires the company to cease the reporting of certain depreciation and amortization on kidney care assets. This accounting change takes a full year benefit of approximately $0.10 per share, which will be reflected in adjusted discontinued operations. On a continuing operations basis, we expect full year adjusted earnings per share before special items of $1.81 to $1.84 per share, reflecting the negative impact from Hurricane Helene and an approximate $0.42 per share headwind from stranded costs.

2023 full year continuing operations, adjusted earnings per share of $1.70 reflected approximately $0.48 per share headwind from stranded costs. Specific to the Q4 of 2024, we expect total company and continuing operations sales to decline low single digits on both reported and constant currency basis. This guidance is inclusive of a 500 basis point negative headwind from Hurricane Elaine. We expect total company adjusted earnings excluding special items and inclusive of discontinued operations of $0.77 to $0.81 per diluted share. This outlook reflects a headwind of $0.15 to $0.20 per share related to the hurricane and an approximately $0.08 per share depreciation benefit.

On a continuing operations basis, we expect adjusted earnings per share before special items of $0.50 to $0.53 per share, reflecting the negative impact from Hurricane Helene and an approximately $0.12 per share headwind for stranded costs. With that, we can now open up the call for Q and A.

Thank you. We are now open for questions. You. And your first question comes from the line of Travis Steed, Bank of America Securities. Please go ahead.

All right, great. I have two questions. I'll just

go ahead and ask them a little close-up front. One, I wanted

to ask on HF and T in the quarter, a little bit light versus The Street. So I wanted to make sure what you're seeing in that business versus expectations this quarter and the confidence that the primary care market is going to improve into 2025? And the second question I'll ask is on 2025. What do you assume for the hurricane impact on 2025? And how do you still get the confidence to reiterate the guidance of 4% to 5% and 16.5% on the margin given the hurricane and what you're seeing in HS and T at the moment?

Thank you, Travis. Listen, let me start with US PSS. This was the biggest concern in the Q1 and throughout the year, a lot of questions. That business has grown now low double digits. We actually converted some really key competitive accounts.

We see us not only stabilize, but start to gain market share. The team went through a lot of transformation and I think is getting to the point that is really competitive and the market share gain demonstrates our superiority in our product lines. 2nd, when I think about the orders coming in for that, we have a very healthy pipeline of orders coming into that. So about 20% growth at the moment on the pipeline. And the operational issues in PSS are all resolved.

We have made a transition between 2 plants and we see that going well. Care communications, we see a very healthy 14% growth in orders. That business had suffered from some delays in installation that we've seen, mainly because hospital volumes are healthy and those are an indicator that hospitals need a break to take rooms down so we can install our equipment, but the orders are in the book and the postponement of some of this installation will come into Q1 of next year and beyond. So let's focus on FLC because FLC is the core of your question in terms of we see the U. S.

Primary care market weakness. That weakness and softness has been demonstrated by our distributors, which actually destock some of our products throughout this year. And but we see that it's starting to stabilize and we see that normalizing to 2025. So if I look outside the U. S.

As the 3rd piece of this puzzle, China and France has shown weakness in their orders with capital being postponed. And so you know capital outside U. S. Is much more prevalent for this business than in the U. S.

And we also exit low margin business, which also shows some comp issues. Going in 2025, U. S. PSS continued the momentum, good order levels. Surgical Solutions is stabilizing from 2023 to 2024 with significant growth in 2023, showing some level of negative growth in 2024 due to the very significant growth in 2023.

We go back into growth in 2025. FLC, easier comps. We have significant amount of new products being launched. The supply constraints will be all but resolved, most of them resolved into the Q4 and is stabilized into 2025. So overall, we see the business fully recovering from most of the operational issues that we had and stabilization of the primary care market, which has been the biggest derailment for FLC in 2024.

Let me talk about start 2025 and Joe take it from there. The way we see 2025, Helene is going to impact mostly Q4 of 2024. We may see some impact in the Q1 of 2025 as we announced all lines will be producing product by the end of this year. We give priority to the highest demand and the one most critically medically needed on the market. So our 1 liter bags coming out of the plant, which is almost 50% of its production, will be fully operational going to 2025 and the other lines to follow.

So we see this Q1 is slight impacted because of that. But then I turn into the significant improvement that we made in pumps, not only we are growing above the competitors who recently announced, but we are actually seeing significant competitive conversions, which has helped us that hence you see the growth of our business in the Q3 of 7%. That is driven significantly by pumps and sets. So I will tell you that we see great, great growth of 50% in 2024 and to continue significant growth in 2025. So that give us a really good view of how our business will offset some of the lean impact in the Q1.

HST normalizing and pharma as a fluky quarter that we had really goes back to above mid single digit growth mostly with injectable spread being driven by new products. Joel?

Yes. Thanks, Joe. And Travis, I'd add a couple of things here to this related to our confidence in 2025. Number 1, we are certainly anticipating continued positive impact from pricing that we've talked about heading into next year. And certainly, in addition to what Joe just talked about, that doesn't change.

We also continue to expect positive impact from our ISCs, the continued MIPs and getting continued driving efficiencies that we have from the growth that we're expecting next year. And so that's a second part of the positive. 3rd is just what I'll call the benefit of expense leverage from the growth that we're anticipating having. I think again with the growth that we're anticipating in the businesses, we're certainly expecting leverage growth from that standpoint. And then finally, there is some headwind impact of MSAs that we've called out before.

But the work that we're doing in terms of cost attainment as to eliminate stranded costs, the TSA income that we're anticipating. And I guess I'd say in addition, there's some one time issues this year that we had that we're not expected to repeat next year. So all in all, the idea that we are reaffirming our confidence in the 4% to 5% from a top line perspective and the 16.5% from the bottom line.

Your next question is from the line of Robbie Marcus, JPMorgan. Your line is open.

Great. Good morning and thank you very much for taking the questions. Maybe to follow-up on Travis's question, I wanted to ask about the 25 guidance. It seems like there'll be a little bit of impact going into at least Q1 of next year. So I guess what gives you the confidence to be able to reiterate 16.5% and do you view that as sort of a target you should be able to reach or in more like historical Baxter guidance philosophy, is that a margin that you should be able to exceed?

And then I'll just throw part 2 of the question in since it might be a longer answer. Maybe walk us through some of the initiatives you're taking to offset the stranded costs and over time the lost TSAs to be able to grow underlying operating margin expansion while offsetting some of the declining income from Tantive? Thanks a lot.

Yes. Thanks, Robbie. It's Joel. I think a couple of things. First of all, I guess what I would say the 16.5% was set as what we believed was a good anchoring point for the organization in terms of how we see it.

Again, post separation, again, both from as we've talked about here from a growth standpoint, from a margin standpoint, again both on the gross margin and then obviously that one all the way to the OLAD line. I think the it also was if you remember almost a kind of a starting point for what we said would be continued margin expansion over the longer term horizon. And so again, I just would reiterate the fact that as Joe said, we are expecting some impact, but relatively minimal in the Q1 relative to the lean impact. And then all the things we've talked about in terms of just reiterating pricing, ISC, MIP opportunities, leverage on expenses, which we continue to anticipate gaining. And so I think if you think about what how do we see our company post separation, that was the amount that we would anchor the company on for us to continue to build on over the next years to come.

I think the some of the actions we're taking certainly think about these things as the what we call the elimination of stranded cost. One of the things we've talked about is this idea that we have a very dense distribution center network in the United States today because of our kidney business. With the home deliveries of that business, we have a large number of distribution centers in the U. S. That ultimately will be something that we will rationalize down significantly based on our new business.

This improves not only our operational efficiency, it improves our inventory management. There's a whole set of things from that perspective. We've talked about essentially the size of the ensuring we are right sized as an organization to support the size of the business going forward. And so as we plan for that, we'll certainly be taking those type of actions. And then if you think about some of the TSAs, obviously, we've talked about the fact that we're anticipating TSA income, in particular in 2025 to offset some of those expenses.

But obviously, we are anticipating that that's not something that will last over a multiyear time period. And so therefore, we're planning carefully on activities to ensure that as those start to fall off, we're ahead of the game and that we have the opportunity to eliminate the stranded costs, which as we've said, we're planning to do by the end of 2027. So I'll pause there if there's anything else.

Now that said, I appreciate the insight. Thanks.

We have a question from Peter Chickering, Deutsche Bank. Please go ahead.

Hey, good morning. I guess 2 questions here. So the first one is, like a few months ago, like IV Solutions was viewed as a commodity product. In a few weeks, after the facility was shut down, hospitals and GPOs were in a full fledged panic mode asking for governments to nationalize companies to solve this problem. So huge congrats to your team for solving what could have been a nightmare for the country.

As you look back and sort of at what happened, do you begin to spread out manufacturing among other facilities to reduce this risk in the future? And when talking to customers that couldn't do surgeries due to bag of IV, do

a new recognition and increase pricing due to the importance of IV bags within the health care system? Or is this more of a headwind as hospitals look to diversify the suppliers to multiple manufacturers?

Peter, good morning. The recognition by Baxter has been a long coming. We recognize this is not a commodity. Commodity is defined by something that is readily available and where the barriers to entry are very low. We have invested over $500,000,000 in that facility since 2016 to date with highly automated And our recovery and the time that we are recovering is very fast compared to what some of the competitors would have experienced themselves.

So they spoke on our behalf, we never did. We're much faster than they are in recovery. This shows that not only we have the ability to come back fast after a devastating, devastating event, we're producing product as we speak today, by the way, to have a worldwide network of plants that can actually bring products into this country, register cross registered at a lightning speed. And that is the difference between us and our competitors. Our competitors have capacity constraints every place in Europe and other parts of the world.

We are able to have capacity in other parts to bring together the plant in North Cove and augment the market even faster. So we have of course, we have some lessons learned. We're going to get even better at this. But we have facilities in Spain, UK, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Colombia, Australia, China, just to give you a few places that allow Baxter to bring products back. Our people have done a wonderful job and Baxter is an example why this product is not a commodity.

I don't want to get into pricing. What I want to tell you is that what we have invested and how we do things is what made us come back so fast and having products being produced as we speak out of that plant.

Okay, great. And then a follow-up question on 2025. 4th quarter sales are impacted by the $200,000,000 split between kidney and medical products and therapies. Because distributors and providers had a drawdown on inventories to supply patients when Northcove is offline, as you think about the Q1 of 'twenty five, shouldn't you get back to bulk of the $150,000,000 to $160,000,000 $1,000,000 back from IV as you restock the inventory channel? Just looking at the revenue guidance for next year, it's implying revenue growth of less than $500,000,000 And I'm wondering why that $150,000,000 $160,000,000 sort of loss in the Q4 doesn't sort of recover next year, so that revenue growth may

Yes. Peter, if you think about something similar that happened to us in the past was Maria. So I think there is we have not factored that in the calculus yet, because we need to get certainty that all lines are producing at prehealing volumes. But of course, you're going to have you have a destock situation, not only in Baxter's inventory, but also in the market. And I fully expect us to be producing 20 fourseven for many, many, many months trying to restock the market and trying to get things back at the level they were before.

And furthermore, also offer some alternatives for people to stock things that they need that they have not stocked in the past. So I think I see potential upside on that area, but we need to get our lines all fully up to speed and then we go from there. But I find that is an opportunity that we have not explored yet fully.

Your next question is from the line of Vijay Kumar, Evercore ISI. Please go ahead.

Hey, guys. Good morning and thanks for taking my question. Joe, maybe off of those comments you just made, right? What is the right framework for fiscal 'twenty five guidance? Is the 4% to 5% organic growth coming off of a lower base?

And if I understood you correctly, you're not assuming the $150,000,000 of the IV fluid shortage impact to come back next year, right? Are those last revenues or should they come back to Baxter? I'm just trying to see what is the conservatism being baked into this guidance?

Baxter International (BAX) Q3 2024 Earnings Call Transcript

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