Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE:BMY) Research Coverage Started at StockNews.com

StockNews.com began coverage on shares of Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE:BMY – Get Rating) in a report issued on Thursday morning. The firm issued a strong-buy rating on the biopharmaceutical company’s stock.

Several other research analysts have also recently weighed in on BMY. Jefferies Financial Group initiated coverage on Bristol-Myers Squibb in a research report on Monday, March 6th. They set a hold rating and a $62.00 price objective for the company. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on Bristol-Myers Squibb from $60.00 to $62.00 and gave the stock an underweight rating in a research report on Friday, February 3rd. Credit Suisse Group initiated coverage on Bristol-Myers Squibb in a research report on Thursday, November 17th. They set a neutral rating and a $78.00 price target for the company. Cantor Fitzgerald initiated coverage on Bristol-Myers Squibb in a research report on Tuesday, January 17th. They set an overweight rating and a $95.00 price target for the company. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on Bristol-Myers Squibb from $70.00 to $78.00 and gave the company an equal weight rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 3rd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $79.69.

Bristol-Myers Squibb Stock Down 0.8 %

Shares of Bristol-Myers Squibb stock opened at $66.53 on Thursday. Bristol-Myers Squibb has a 1 year low of $65.28 and a 1 year high of $81.43. The business has a 50-day moving average of $70.96 and a two-hundred day moving average of $72.91. The company has a market capitalization of $139.63 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.55, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.47 and a beta of 0.46. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.13, a current ratio of 1.25 and a quick ratio of 1.14.

Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE:BMY – Get Rating) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 2nd. The biopharmaceutical company reported $1.82 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.71 by $0.11. The company had revenue of $11.41 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $11.20 billion. Bristol-Myers Squibb had a return on equity of 51.60% and a net margin of 13.71%. Bristol-Myers Squibb’s revenue for the quarter was down 4.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.83 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts predict that Bristol-Myers Squibb will post 8.07 EPS for the current year.

Bristol-Myers Squibb Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, May 1st. Stockholders of record on Monday, April 10th will be given a $0.57 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 6th. This represents a $2.28 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.43%. Bristol-Myers Squibb’s payout ratio is 77.29%.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Giovanni Caforio sold 240,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $74.65, for a total transaction of $17,916,000.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 236,104 shares in the company, valued at $17,625,163.60. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In other news, CEO Giovanni Caforio sold 240,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $74.65, for a total transaction of $17,916,000.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 236,104 shares in the company, valued at $17,625,163.60. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, EVP Ann Powell sold 11,183 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $74.69, for a total value of $835,258.27. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 23,043 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,721,081.67. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 0.09% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Bristol-Myers Squibb

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in BMY. Norges Bank bought a new position in Bristol-Myers Squibb during the 4th quarter worth $1,873,696,000. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC increased its stake in Bristol-Myers Squibb by 114,228.7% during the 4th quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 21,469,785 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $1,544,751,000 after acquiring an additional 21,451,006 shares during the period. Boston Partners increased its stake in Bristol-Myers Squibb by 103.1% during the 3rd quarter. Boston Partners now owns 10,166,384 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $725,297,000 after acquiring an additional 5,161,226 shares during the period. FMR LLC increased its stake in Bristol-Myers Squibb by 7.2% during the 2nd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 71,882,436 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $5,534,947,000 after acquiring an additional 4,855,169 shares during the period. Finally, BlackRock Inc. increased its stake in Bristol-Myers Squibb by 2.0% during the 3rd quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 174,002,852 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $12,369,862,000 after acquiring an additional 3,357,590 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 75.51% of the company’s stock.

About Bristol-Myers Squibb

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Bristol Myers Squibb Co engages in the discovery, development, licensing, manufacture, marketing, distribution, and sale of biopharmaceutical products. It offers chemically-synthesized drugs or small molecules and products produced from biological processes called biologics. The company was founded in August 1933 and is headquartered in New York, NY.