Healthcare company Baxter International (NYSE: BAX) will be reporting earnings this Thursday before market hours. Here’s what investors should know.

Baxter met analysts’ revenue expectations last quarter, reporting revenues of $2.81 billion, up 4.3% year on year. It was a softer quarter for the company, with a significant miss of analysts’ EPS guidance for next quarter estimates and a significant miss of analysts’ EPS estimates.

Is Baxter a buy or sell going into earnings? Read our full analysis here, it’s free for active Edge members.

This quarter, analysts are expecting Baxter’s revenue to grow 6.6% year on year to $2.88 billion, improving from the 3.8% increase it recorded in the same quarter last year. Adjusted earnings are expected to come in at $0.60 per share.

Analysts covering the company have generally reconfirmed their estimates over the last 30 days, suggesting they anticipate the business to stay the course heading into earnings. Baxter has missed Wall Street’s revenue estimates six times over the last two years.

Looking at Baxter’s peers in the medical devices & supplies - diversified segment, some have already reported their Q3 results, giving us a hint as to what we can expect. Neogen’s revenues decreased 3.6% year on year, beating analysts’ expectations by 2.6%, and Boston Scientific reported revenues up 20.3%, topping estimates by 1.9%. Neogen traded up 3.7% following the results while Boston Scientific was also up 2.5%.

Read our full analysis of Neogen’s results here and Boston Scientific’s results here.

There has been positive sentiment among investors in the medical devices & supplies - diversified segment, with share prices up 6.1% on average over the last month. Baxter is up 2.3% during the same time and is heading into earnings with an average analyst price target of $28 (compared to the current share price of $22.90).

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