Sales Up Across Segments For Becton Dickinson, But Lawsuit Hurts Earnings

Becton Dickinson and Co. on Tuesday released mixed results for the fourth quarter.

While revenue at the company was up significantly for BD's medical systems, diagnostics and biosciences segments, ongoing legal costs dragged down net income, leading to a 68.5% decrease in profits year over year for the Franklin Lakes, NJ-based company.

In addition, the company announced that a stock repurchase plan worth $450 million will be launched next year.

During the fourth quarter ended Sept. 30, Becton Dickinson pulled in profits of $91 million, down from $289 million from the same period a year ago.

For the most part, these dampened profits were due to costs over an antitrust case.

In September of this year, a jury in Texas ordered BD to pay $113 million to rival Retractable Technologies. These funds were awarded by the jury as compensation for a six-year antitrust case over medical technologies.

While $113 million may be a hefty sum, the final jury award could rise much higher.

While the company did state that an appeal would be filed, the company still reported a fourth quarter pretax charge of $341 million associated with the case. On top of this, Becton Dickinson also faces $20 million in charges associated with non-cash pension settlements.

Despite this bad news, the company did manage to pull in revenues of $2.1 billion in the fourth quarter. This represents a year-over-year increase of 6.8%.