What Makes Baxter International (BAX) an Attractive Long-Term Opportunity?

Oakmark Funds, advised by Harris Associates, released its “Oakmark Fund” second quarter 2023 investor letter. A copy of the same can be downloaded here. The fund returned 8.6% in the second quarter compared to an 8.7% return for the S&P 500 Index. Year-to-date, the fund returned 17.4% compared to a 16.9% return for the benchmark. Despite the headwinds, the fund has outperformed through the first half of the year. In addition, you can check the top 5 holdings of the fund to know its best picks in 2023.

Oakmark Fund highlighted stocks like Baxter International Inc. (NYSE:BAX) in the second quarter 2023 investor letter. Headquartered in Deerfield, Illinois, Baxter International Inc. (NYSE:BAX) provides a portfolio of healthcare products. On July 11, 2023, Baxter International Inc. (NYSE:BAX) stock closed at $46.03 per share. One-month return of Baxter International Inc. (NYSE:BAX) was 5.89%, and its shares lost 28.83% of their value over the last 52 weeks. Baxter International Inc. (NYSE:BAX) has a market capitalization of $23.478 billion.

Oakmark Fund made the following comment about Baxter International Inc. (NYSE:BAX) in its second quarter 2023 investor letter:

“Baxter International Inc. (NYSE:BAX) is a provider of medical devices and health care supplies used in patient care. The company’s competitive advantages include leading scale, a large installed base and long-term customer relationships. Demand for Baxter’s products tends to be stable and predictable. We had invested in Baxter a few years ago when Joe Almeida joined the company as CEO, and we believe that he and his management team are focused on growing per share value. Recently, we got another chance to buy shares after the price fell significantly due to margin pressure from inflation, semiconductor shortages and ripple effects related to Covid-19. We see these issues as short term in nature and think that management will restore higher margins in the years ahead. As a result, we believe the stock is cheap at less than 10x our estimate of normalized earnings.”

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Baxter International Inc. (NYSE:BAX) is not on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 55 hedge fund portfolios held Baxter International Inc. (NYSE:BAX) at the end of first quarter which was 41 in the previous quarter.

We discussed Baxter International Inc. (NYSE:BAX) in another article and shared Artisan Value Fund’s views on the company. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q2 2023 page for more investor letters from hedge funds and other leading investors.

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Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.