Baxter profit beats analyst estimates on hemophilia products

Deerfield-based Baxter International Inc., a maker of dialysis products, reported fourth-quarter profit that beat analysts’ estimates on demand for hemophilia therapies.

Fourth-quarter earnings, excluding one-time items, of $1.26 a share beat by 1 cent the average of 15 analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg.

Sales rose 16 percent to $4.4 billion, boosted by the Advate and Feiba hemophilia treatments and the acquisition of Sweden’s Gambro AB, Deerfield, Illinois-based Baxter said in a statement today. Earnings excluding one-time items for 2014 will probably be $5.05 to $5.25 a share, the company said. The outlook excludes 25 cents in amortization expenses.

“Overall, performance in the quarter looked solid,” Derrick Sung, an analyst with Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., wrote in a research note today. Baxter’s forecast missed his estimate of $5.29 a share, he said. “The weaker outlook raises some questions.”

Baxter rose 1 percent to $70.46 at 9:41 a.m. New York time. The shares gained 4.2 percent in the 12 months through yesterday.

Net income in the quarter fell 34 percent to $326 million, or 59 cents a share, from $494 million, or 89 cents, a year earlier, Baxter said. The results were weighed down by $366 million in one-time items that included the cost of acquiring Gambro, the company said.

Baxter said in December 2012 it agreed to acquire Gambro for 18.3 billion kronor ($2.8 billion), adding a unit with about $1.6 billion in annual sales.