Forensic Analysis · Healthcare / Pharmaceuticals / Biotech · as of Sep 25, 2026
Baxter International Inc (BAX)
A forensic read on Baxter International Inc built from its complete SEC filings — financial-health screens, earnings quality, red flags and a price-aware rating. Reproducible math, not opinion.
D · Weak — demands caution
Forensic grade
Safe
Financial health
4.3
Distress distance
Clean
Earnings quality
5
Forensic signals
-11.2
P / E (ttm)
-15.6%
ROE
$12.1B
Market cap
3.22%
Dividend yield
5.7%
Revenue growth
This free snapshot doesn't read filing or proxy text, so the auditor-quality and governance checks that can lower a grade were not evaluated (red flags, auditor quality, say on pay, board independence, going concern, valuation). Those checks only ever lower a grade, so the full analysis can land below the grade above but never above it — treat it as the most favourable reading, not the settled one.
Baxter International Inc earns a D (Weak — demands caution) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads 4.3, placing it in the Safe zone. 5 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by return on invested capital.
What the filings flag
-1.6%
FY2025
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is -1.6% in the latest fiscal year and slipping across FY2023–FY2025 from 2.8%. After-tax operating profit was $529M in FY2023 and ($243M) in FY2025, with operating income at 6.8% of revenue in FY2023, 0.1% in FY2024 and -2.7% in FY2025. The capital base behind it came down -19% across FY2023–FY2025, from $18.7B to $15.1B, so this is a return struck on a smaller base rather than a record of money put to work. FY2023's operating profit carried a $141M restructuring charge that took about 0.6 points off that year's return, and FY2025's carried a $485M goodwill write-off and a $162M restructuring charge that took about 3.4 points off the latest; so, net of each other, the two charges take about 2.8 points off the -4.4-point change across FY2023–FY2025. FY2024's operating profit carried a $425M goodwill write-off, a $146M restructuring charge and a $50M asset write-down that alone took about 2.5 points off that year's return; FY2024 sits between the two ends of FY2023–FY2025, so the charge shapes the path between them without moving the change across it.
+0.5%/yr
FY2023–FY2025
Share count.Diluted share count changed +1% over the last 2 years to FY2025 (+0.5%/yr). Roughly flat — the count is neither shrinking nor growing meaningfully. Per-share value isn't being meaningfully helped or hurt by the count.
105% of FCF
FY2025
Shareholder returns.Returned $348M to shareholders (buybacks + dividends) in FY2025 — 105% of free cash flow. That is $16M (5%) more than free cash flow covered. Over FY2025 cash rose $202M and total debt fell $3.6B, so neither line funded the gap; it was met from balance-sheet lines this read does not cover. That ratio has been CLIMBING past free cash flow — 45% of free cash flow two years back — not just sitting there. Counting the $117M of stock-based comp paid out in shares on top of that, the combined claim on free cash flow is 140%.
Key fundamentals
Latest Revenue$11.24B
Revenue Growth YoY+5.7%
Revenue CAGR (2yr)+4.2%
Net Margin-8.5%
Free Cash Flow$332.0M
Return on Equity-15.6%
Debt / Equity1.55x
The forensic grade and screens above are free — no account needed. Want the AI investment read on top — the 0–100 rating, thesis, bull-vs-bear, red flags and the 12-month scenario, written from Baxter International Inc's actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?
Data from SEC EDGAR public filings · metrics as of Sep 25, 2026. Forensic signals flag probability, not certainty.
Baxter International Inc (BAX) Stock — Forensic Analysis, Red Flags & Rating | Stockonomy · Stockonomy
$910M
FY2024–FY2025
Goodwill impairments.Took $910M of goodwill writedowns across 2 years (FY2024 ($425M), FY2025 ($485M)). Writedowns mean past acquisitions underperformed what was paid for them.
-41%
FY2024→FY2025
Dividend — cut.The payout was CUT ~41% in FY2025 (from FY2024). It still returns some cash, but it is NOT the dependable, rising dividend an unbroken streak implies.