Becton Dickinson (NYSE:BDX) today announced that it brought in $5.3 billion in revenue for its first quarter ended Dec. 31, 2020, beating the nearly $4.7 billion expected by Wall Street analysts.
The announcement of the preliminary unaudited Q1 results sent BDX shares up 1.8% to $261.75 apiece by midday trading today. MassDevice’s MedTech 100 Index, which includes stocks of the world’s largest medical device companies, was down slightly.
The Q1 revenue was up 25.6% from the same quarter a year before. Strong demand COVID-19 diagnostic tests played a primary role, but BD also saw better-than-expected performance across all three segments as elective and routine procedure volume showed greater resiliency as a new wave of the novel coronavirus pandemic struck the world.
On top of being an important provider of COVID diagnostic tests, BD is also playing a crucial role in supplying the syringes needed to deliver the newly approved vaccines.