Becton Dickinson (BDX)
Forward P/E is 14.80x against a peer median of 20.84x, a ratio of 0.71x — well below the 0.90x undervalued line — with trailing P/E 58.86x (inflated by separation-period charges) and PEG not reported (shown as n/a on the statistics page). The headline revenue change of -9.5% year over year (PRIMARY, EDGAR) is not used as demand evidence: the quarterly series in the filings steps down from about $5.5B to about $4.7B exactly at the March 2026 quarter, when the sale of the biosciences and diagnostic solutions business closed, so the year-over-year comparison crosses a changed company perimeter rather than measuring delivered demand — the value-trap downgrade is therefore not applied. Judged on the forward P/E ratio against peers, the price sits well below the peer median: UNDERVALUED. Delivered demand check: the medical devices & equipment group's median growth was 7.8% year over year — demand rising across the group; this company's own growth figure is not readable across the separation.
What would change this label: Move to FAIRLY PRICED if the forward P/E rises to about 18.8x or above (0.90x the peer median of 20.84x) at unchanged estimates. Move to OVERVALUED if the forward P/E rises above about 24.0x (1.15x the peer median), or if the first year-over-year revenue comparison on the post-separation perimeter (available once four quarters of continuing-operations filings exist) shows the continuing business shrinking.
Becton Dickinson sells needles, catheters, diagnostic gear and other everyday hospital supplies worldwide. Its shares trade at 14.8 times expected earnings against a peer median of 20.8 times — a wide discount that appeared after it sold its biosciences and diagnostics unit in early 2026, which also makes its headline sales decline look worse than the underlying business. On the peer test the price looks UNDERVALUED.
Both lines start at 100 on 2020-09-01. Over the full window Becton Dickinson returned +3.30% and the S&P 500 +118.28% (price returns; dividends not reinvested). Worst peak-to-trough fall for Becton Dickinson: -41.8% (2023-07-27 to 2025-05-06). Source: Nasdaq official daily history.
What the label rests on
Forward P/E is 14.80x against a peer median of 20.84x, a ratio of 0.71x — well below the 0.90x undervalued line — with trailing P/E 58.86x (inflated by separation-period charges) and PEG not reported (shown as n/a on the statistics page). The headline revenue change of -9.5% year over year (PRIMARY, EDGAR) is not used as demand evidence: the quarterly series in the filings steps down from about $5.5B to about $4.7B exactly at the March 2026 quarter, when the sale of the biosciences and diagnostic solutions business closed, so the year-over-year comparison crosses a changed company perimeter rather than measuring delivered demand — the value-trap downgrade is therefore not applied. Judged on the forward P/E ratio against peers, the price sits well below the peer median: UNDERVALUED. Delivered demand check: the medical devices & equipment group's median growth was 7.8% year over year — demand rising across the group; this company's own growth figure is not readable across the separation. The company’s forward P/E is 14.8× against a peer median of 20.8×. Its own history: UNVERIFIED — no sourced range available. Sector demand read: Delivered demand check: the medical devices & equipment group's median latest-quarter revenue growth was 7.8% year over year (SEC filings) — demand rising across the group. This company's own year-over-year figure crosses the early-2026 separation and is not readable as a demand signal. Latest-quarter sales growth was -9.5% versus a year earlier (SEC filings).
| Company | Price (Oct 28, 2026) | Forward P/E | Trailing P/E |
|---|---|---|---|
| Becton Dickinson (BDX) | $196.07 | 14.8× | 58.9× |
| EW | $91.93 | 28.9× | 53.5× |
| IDXX | $564.66 | 36.0× | 39.7× |
| BSX | $42.11 | 12.7× | 17.8× |
| RMD | $252.04 | 20.8× | 24.2× |
| GEHC | $76.41 | 14.4× | 16.1× |
| Peer median | 20.8× |
Multiples: stockanalysis.com (SECONDARY, S&P Global data), fetched Oct 28, 2026. Peer set chosen by sector; the median is the middle value of the set. The label and its numbers were recorded in the programme’s label registry on Oct 28, 2026 and will be scored at 6 and 12 months.
Sales, profit and cash
This company does not report a gross-profit line in its SEC facts (normal for banks, payment networks and some health insurers), so profit is shown as net income instead — gross margin is marked UNVERIFIED-absent rather than estimated.
Free cash flow = cash from operations minus spending on plant and equipment, both from the company’s SEC cash-flow statement. Gaps are quarters where that spending line is not separately tagged in the filings — shown as gaps, never estimated.
| Quarter | Sales | Gross margin | Net income | EPS (GAAP, diluted) | Free cash flow |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Q/E Jun 2026 2026-06-30 | $5.0B | — | $377M | 1.37 | $633M |
| Q/E Mar 2026 2026-03-31 | $4.7B | — | $-311M | -1.11 | — |
| Q/E Dec 2025 2025-12-31 | $5.3B | — | $382M | 1.34 | $549M |
| Q/E Sep 2025 2025-09-30 | $5.9B | — | $493M | — | $1.0B |
| Q/E Jun 2025 2025-06-30 | $5.5B | — | $574M | 2.00 | $1.0B |
| Q/E Mar 2025 2025-03-31 | $5.3B | — | $308M | 1.07 | $35M |
| Q/E Dec 2024 2024-12-31 | $5.2B | — | $303M | 1.04 | $588M |
| Q/E Sep 2024 2024-09-30 | $5.4B | — | $400M | — | $882M |
| Q/E Jun 2024 2024-06-30 | $5.0B | — | $487M | 1.68 | $1.1B |
| Q/E Mar 2024 2024-03-31 | $5.0B | — | $537M | 1.85 | $380M |
| Q/E Dec 2023 2023-12-31 | $4.7B | — | $281M | 0.96 | $739M |
| Q/E Sep 2023 2023-09-30 | $5.1B | — | $108M | — | $1.0B |
The last twelve reported quarters. Full 24-quarter history sits in the data pack behind this page. A dash means the figure is not tagged as a standalone quarter in the company’s SEC facts (the usual case is the fourth quarter, which many companies only report inside the full-year filing) — it is missing, not zero.
Earnings: getting better or worse?
Each box is one quarter’s earnings per share (EPS). Green means EPS was higher than the same quarter a year earlier; red means lower; a dash means the figure is not tagged in the filings.
Basis: GAAP diluted EPS from SEC company facts, compared with the same quarter a year earlier.
Key facts
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| Company (legal name in filings) | BECTON DICKINSON & CO |
| Chief executive | Tom Polen (source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Becton_Dickinson) |
| Sector | Health Care — Health Care Equipment — sells syringes, catheters, diagnostic instruments and medication-management systems |
| Share price (Oct 28, 2026) | $196.07 |
| Market value (market cap) | $53.1B — share price times shares outstanding of 272,386,800 (SEC filings; SEC EDGAR dei EntityCommonStockSharesOutstanding (latest)) |
| Sales, last twelve months | $20.8B |
| Net income, last twelve months | $941M |
| Free cash flow, last twelve months | — |
| Latest reported quarter | Q/E Jun 2026 (of 24 quarters in the data pack) |
| Six-year price return vs S&P 500 | +3.30% vs +118.28% |
| Worst peak-to-trough fall | -41.8% (2023-07-27 to 2025-05-06) |
What we could not verify
- Gross profit / gross margin: not tagged as a standalone line in this company's EDGAR company facts (common for banks, payment networks and some healthcare payers) — shown as UNVERIFIED-absent; the page charts revenue and net income instead.
- TTM GAAP diluted EPS could not be summed from company facts because at least one of the last four quarters (typically Q4) has no standalone tagged EPS; trailing P/E is therefore taken from the labelled secondary source in valuation_label.md.
- Free cash flow is absent for one or more quarters: either the filer does not separately tag PP&E purchases in its EDGAR cash-flow facts (common for banks), or — for a successor registrant's newest quarter — the cash-flow lines are year-to-date without the prior-quarter rung needed to difference them. Affected quarters are null in the data, never estimated.
- Own-history P/E range not yet compiled for this company in the Phase 1 batch run; the label rests on peer-median, growth and PEG evidence.
- PEG Ratio shown as n/a on statistics page; recorded as null
- Year-over-year revenue comparisons cross the early-2026 sale of the biosciences & diagnostic solutions business; the filings' quarterly series steps down at the March 2026 quarter — demand trend not readable from the headline growth figure.
- Guidance record (each quarter scored against the guidance the company gave the quarter before) is not yet compiled for this company — it is a Phase 2 layer. The earnings strip below therefore uses reported EPS versus a year earlier, which is fully sourced from filings.
The IT factor — the most exciting thing the market is overlooking — is not assessed on an X-Ray page. It belongs to the Deep Dive (Phase 2), where it gets the evidence standard it needs. Leadership-era scoring (the six years split by chief executive) is likewise a Phase 2 layer; this page names the current chief executive only, from a sourced profile.
Sources
- SEC EDGAR submissions — Filing index; company legal name.
https://data.sec.gov/submissions/CIK0000010795.json - SEC EDGAR company facts — Quarterly financial spine: revenue, gross profit, net income, GAAP diluted EPS, operating cash flow, PP&E capex, buybacks, dividends, diluted shares.
https://data.sec.gov/api/xbrl/companyfacts/CIK0000010795.json - Nasdaq official daily history — Daily closes for the company; SPY (assetclass=etf) saved as raw/nasdaq_spy_raw.json over identical dates.
https://api.nasdaq.com/api/quote/BDX/historical?assetclass=stocks - Valuation multiples and peer figures — stockanalysis.com (SECONDARY, S&P Global data), fetched Oct 28, 2026; see valuation_label.md in the data pack.
Conventions: earliest-filed value per period, as first reported; cash-flow years-to-date differenced quarter by quarter; EPS never differenced; free cash flow = operating cash flow minus plant-and-equipment spending. This page is a dated snapshot — updates are new versions, never silent edits.