Moody’s: C.R. Bard notes Baa1

Moody’s Investors Service said it assigned a Baa1 rating to C.R. Bard, Inc.’s $500 million secured note offering and a provisional Baa1 rating to its new senior unsecured shelf registration.

Bard’s existing Baa1 and prime-2 ratings are unchanged.

The outlook is stable.

The proceeds will be used to refinance the company’s commercial-paper borrowings, Moody’s said.

The ratings reflect the company’s strong market presence in many of its product lines and its focus on a broad array of lower-tech products sold primarily to hospitals, the agency said.

The ratings also consider Bard’s solid credit metrics, which are stronger than what is typical of other companies in this rating category, Moody’s said.

This offsets the fact that Bard is smaller than its competitors, the agency added.

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