The Motley Fool: Will Baxter International Inc's Split Unlock Shareholder Value?

If a strategy has worked before, try it again. Baxter (NYSE: BAX  ) has never been shy about identifying businesses that lie outside its core operating focus and being willing to set them free. Edwards Lifesciences, Caremark, and Allegiance Healthcare (now part of Cardinal Health) were all once under the Baxter umbrella, and arguably did better on their own than they would have as parts of Baxter.

Now the company is doing it again, choosing to spin off its biopharmaceuticals business as an independent publicly traded company. Investors cheered the move, as it does remove some issues that were clouding the value of the company's other operations.

Go to The Motley Fool for the full article:
Will Baxter International Inc's Split Unlock Shareholder Value?

The Motley Fool: Is This Overlooked Stock Primed for More Growth?

Blood products really don't get that much attention in the health care space, but it's a market worth more than $10 billion a year excluding hemophilia products and growing around 6% to 8% a year as indications and patient identification expand. Baxter (NYSE: BAX  ) , one of the largest players in the market, is reasonably well-known to investors, but Grifols (NASDAQ: GRFS  ) is more obscure despite being one of the three largest players in the world and the largest in the U.S. As Grifols looks to leverage good underlying market growth through more efficient operations, the growth potential looks impressive.

Continue here:
Is This Overlooked Stock Primed for More Growth?

Seeking Alpha: Baxter Still Defensive, But Is Now The Time For Offense?

The best thing about Baxter (BAX) is that so much of its business comes from oligopolistic markets with pretty steady demand and reimbursement. The worst thing about Baxter is that so much of its business comes from oligopolistic markets with pretty steady demand and reimbursement.

In theory, Baxter is a good stock to own during slow patches in the med-tech world because the demand for profitable businesses like infusion, recombinants, plasma-derived therapies, and other bioscience products doesn't drop much with the economy, and Baxter reports growth while others contract . On the flip side, the company has historically not looked to target new growth markets, and the company's growth looks pretty pokey when the sector revives.

With a few signs of life here and there in med-tech, as well as oncoming competition in biosciences, it is worth asking whether Baxter is still a name that investors want to hold today.

Read more here:
Baxter Still Defensive, But Is Now The Time For Offense?

Investopedia: Bizarre Baxter

What exactly is Baxter International (NYSE:BAX) supposed to be? It has a huge business in biological therapies for conditions like hemophilia, but also a sizable business in medical devices and equipment. It's not priced as a value stock, it's dividend is too low for an income stock, but it doesn't really grow enough to be a med-tech growth story. All in all, Baxter is a consummate "neither fish nor fowl" company, but that does not mean that it is not worth a serious look from investors looking for a quality health-care name with growth potential. 

A Challenging Third Quarter  
Analysts seemed positive on Baxter's third quarter results, but it is not immediately clear as to why they should be. Organic revenue growth was just 4% - maybe not terrible in the context of a tough health-care market that has laid low even Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) and Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT), but not exactly torrid either.

Read the full piece here:
http://stocks.investopedia.com/stock-analysis/2011/Bizarre-Baxter-Struggle-To-Grow-BAX-NVO-NXTM-FMS1026.aspx