Becton, Dickinson and Company (BDX) Stock Price & How to Invest

Becton, Dickinson and Company, known as BD, is one of the largest medical technology companies in the world, founded in 1897 and headquartered in Franklin Lakes, New Jersey. Most of what it sells is consumable rather than capital equipment: needles and syringes, IV catheters and vascular access sets, infusion pumps and their disposable sets, surgical and specimen-collection products, prefillable syringes sold to pharmaceutical companies, and interventional devices used in urology, peripheral vascular and surgery. That mix matters because consumables are consumed and reordered, so a large share of revenue recurs each year regardless of hospital capital budgets. Following the February 2026 separation, BD reports in four segments: Medical Essentials (~$1.68 billion in the June 2026 quarter), Interventional (~$1.41 billion), Connected Care (~$1.22 billion) and BioPharma Systems (~$0.67 billion).

The defining corporate event was the Reverse Morris Trust transaction that moved BD's Biosciences and Diagnostic Solutions businesses into Waters Corporation, which closed on February 9, 2026. BD shareholders received roughly 0.135 shares of Waters for each BD share held as of February 5, 2026 and ended up owning about 39.2% of the combined Waters, while BD itself received about $4 billion in cash. The divested business was valued at roughly $18.8 billion. Anyone comparing BDX financials across periods needs to be careful, because the separated business is now reported as discontinued operations: trailing revenue from continuing operations sits near $20.8 billion, while pre-separation fiscal 2025 revenue as originally reported was about $21.8 billion. In the third quarter of fiscal 2026, reported on August 6, 2026, BD posted about $5.0 billion of revenue (up ~5.4% as reported and ~4.4% on a currency-neutral basis), GAAP diluted EPS from continuing operations of ~$1.64 and adjusted diluted EPS of ~$3.23, and raised the top end of its full-year adjusted EPS guidance to a range of ~$12.62 to ~$12.72.

The most persistent risk is product liability: BD carries large ongoing litigation over hernia and pelvic mesh and IVC filters, and adverse verdicts or settlement waves can hit cash flow and headlines unpredictably. Quality and regulatory risk is real and recurring for a device maker at this scale, including a 2026 voluntary recall of certain intraosseous vascular access needle sets and the multi-year FDA remediation history of the Alaris infusion pump. Customer power is a structural pressure, because hospitals buy through group purchasing organizations and integrated delivery networks that negotiate hard on commodity consumables such as syringes and catheters, while China volume-based procurement compresses pricing in that market. Tariffs, freight and input costs affect a business that ships enormous physical volumes across borders, and currency swings move reported results given large international exposure. Finally, the separation itself introduces execution risk: stranded costs, dis-synergies and a smaller revenue base against the debt taken on before the split all have to be managed, and the comparison history is now discontinuous, which makes trend analysis harder.

12 analysts publish price targets on BDX, averaging $192.00 against a $176.86 price as of August 2026, or +8.6%. The published targets run from $170.00 to $225.00, a narrow spread, and the ratings split 7 buy, 7 hold, 0 sell. Over the last six months there have been 7 raises and 4 cuts among the published actions. A price target is what an analyst published on a date, not a prediction, and sell-side ratings skew positive across the whole market.

Read the full BDX forecast and price target for the target table, the recent rating actions by firm, and how the consensus has shifted.

We give no verdict on Becton, Dickinson and Company. Both cases are real, which is why the question is contested at all, so here is the strongest version of each.

The case for buying. A simpler, pure-play medtech after the Waters separation. The whole point of the February 2026 separation was to leave behind a focused medical technology company rather than a conglomerate spanning devices, life-science research tools and diagnostics. The most optimistic published target, $225.00, assumes this works close to its best case.

The case against. The most persistent risk is product liability: BD carries large ongoing litigation over hernia and pelvic mesh and IVC filters, and adverse verdicts or settlement waves can hit cash flow and headlines unpredictably. The most pessimistic target, $170.00, is roughly what BDX is worth if this bites instead.

Read the full bull and bear case on BDX, including what would have to change to break either one. Walnut is not an investment adviser.

A simple financial snapshot. These are approximations and refresh quarterly; for current figures see Becton, Dickinson and Company's investor relations page or your broker.

• Revenue (TTM, continuing operations): ~$20.8 billion
• Q3 fiscal 2026 revenue (quarter ended June 2026): ~$5.0 billion, up ~5.4% as reported and ~4.4% currency-neutral
• Q3 fiscal 2026 EPS: ~$1.64 GAAP diluted from continuing operations, ~$3.23 adjusted
• Fiscal 2026 guidance (adjusted diluted EPS): ~$12.62 to ~$12.72, with low-single-digit-plus revenue growth
• Market cap: ~$48 billion (stock ~$177 per share)
• Valuation and dividend: ~30x trailing GAAP earnings, ~13x to ~14x forward earnings, dividend ~$4.20 per share for a yield near ~2.4%

All figures are approximate and tied to the asOf date; check live numbers before acting on any of them. The wide gap between the trailing GAAP multiple (~30x) and the forward multiple (~13x to ~14x) is not a growth forecast, it is mostly an artifact of separation charges, intangible amortization and discontinued-operations accounting depressing reported GAAP earnings, which is why BD and most analysts discuss adjusted EPS. Trailing revenue comparisons across fiscal 2025 and fiscal 2026 are not like-for-like, because the Biosciences and Diagnostic Solutions business moved to discontinued operations after the February 2026 close.

Other names that sit close to BDX: same theme, named as a direct competitor, or held beside it in the same funds. Each entry says which. Worth a look if you are thinking about diversification within a thesis rather than concentration on one ticker.

There are three common ways to get BDX exposure. Buy shares (or fractional shares) directly at any major broker. Hold an ETF that includes it, which spreads the position across many companies. Or build it into a focused thematic portfolio, so BDX sits alongside other stocks that express the same thesis.

Walnut takes the portfolio route. Describe a thesis where BDX fits (for example “AI infrastructure” or “dividend-growth large-caps”) and the AI proposes 5 to 6 constituents with target weights. You review the plan and fund it through your own broker when you're ready.

New to this? Start with how to invest in stocks, see how to analyze a stock with AI, or compare the best AI stock analyzers.

Post-separation BD is a slower-growing but highly recurring medtech consumables business trading at roughly 14 times forward earnings, so the debate is whether a simpler portfolio and a mid-single-digit organic growth rate justify the discount to faster-growing device peers.

Whether BDX is worth buying today depends more on your time horizon and what you already hold than on any single call. We walk through valuation, what would have to go right, and the risks in is BDX a buy or a sell?, and where the stock could go from here in the BDX stock forecast.

For income investors, whether BDX pays a dividend and how the payout looks is covered in does BDX pay a dividend? And to weigh BDX against a peer, read the full side-by-side comparisons: BDX vs BAX and BDX vs ICUI.