10 Best Dividend Aristocrats According to Wall Street Analysts

5. Becton, Dickinson and Company (NYSE:BDX)

Analyst Upside Potential as of August 7: 17.6%

Becton, Dickinson and Company (NYSE:BDX) is an American medical device company that also specializes in instrument systems and reagents. The company continues to focus on expanding production capacities, forging strategic partnerships, and driving innovation across its product lines. While these strategic acquisitions have been widely praised by many investors, they are not equally well-received by all. Madison Investments also highlighted this aspect in its Q2 2024 investor letter. Here is what the firm has to say:

“During the quarter, we sold our stake in Becton, Dickinson and Company (NYSE:BDX). Becton is a leading global medical technology and diagnostics company. We admire its dominant market position spanning a vast array of consumable medical products. However, in more recent years, the company has pursued a capital allocation strategy focused a bit more on acquisitions than we’d prefer, and has had operational hiccups in some product lines and geographies. While we believe the company will manage through the issues, we decided to sell to fund more attractive opportunities.”

In the fiscal third quarter of 2024, the company has achieved strong performance across various segments of its portfolio, with accelerated margin expansion and cash flow, thanks to the growing success of its BD Excellence operating system. It is evident that the teams are successfully transforming BD into the innovative MedTech leader envisioned with the launch of the BD 2025 strategy. The company’s concentrated efforts have positioned it to meet its revised fiscal 2024 earnings guidance and to reach its long-term objectives.

Becton, Dickinson and Company (NYSE:BDX) generated nearly $5 billion in revenues in fiscal Q3 2024, which showed a 2.3% growth from the same period last year. The cash position also remained favorable for income investors. Year-to-date cash from continuing operations increased by 60% to $2.7 billion, while free cash flow more than doubled to $2.2 billion. This represents an increase of $1.0 billion and $1.2 billion from the previous year, respectively. Street analysts hold a consensus Strong Buy rating on BDX with a $278.5 price target, which showed a 17.6% upside potential.

On July 23, Becton, Dickinson and Company (NYSE:BDX) declared a quarterly dividend of $0.95 per share, which was in line with its previous dividend. Overall, the company has been rewarding shareholders with growing dividends for the past 52 years, which makes it one of the best dividend aristocrat stocks on our list. The stock supports a dividend yield of 1.63%, as of August 7.

According to Insider Monkey’s database, 60 hedge funds owned stakes in Becton, Dickinson and Company (NYSE:BDX) at the end of Q1 2024, the same as in the previous quarter. These stakes have a collective value of over $2.5 billion. With over 3.2 million shares, Generation Investment Management was the company’s largest stakeholder in Q1.