Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE:BMY) Stock Price Up 0.5% on Analyst Upgrade

Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE:BMY)’s share price traded up 0.5% on Thursday after Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on the stock from $51.00 to $52.00. Wells Fargo & Company currently has an equal weight rating on the stock. Bristol-Myers Squibb traded as high as $48.20 and last traded at $48.10. 2,345,663 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 85% from the average session volume of 15,664,869 shares. The stock had previously closed at $47.84.

A number of other research firms have also weighed in on BMY. Societe Generale lowered shares of Bristol-Myers Squibb from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, March 11th. Bank of America cut shares of Bristol-Myers Squibb from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and cut their target price for the company from $68.00 to $60.00 in a research note on Wednesday, January 3rd. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Bristol-Myers Squibb from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Monday. William Blair reiterated a “market perform” rating on shares of Bristol-Myers Squibb in a research note on Monday, April 1st. Finally, Redburn Atlantic lowered Bristol-Myers Squibb from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and lowered their price target for the company from $77.00 to $54.00 in a research note on Tuesday, February 6th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, fifteen have assigned a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $61.18.

Institutional Trading of Bristol-Myers Squibb

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in BMY. Herold Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in Bristol-Myers Squibb by 3.2% in the third quarter. Herold Advisors Inc. now owns 33,668 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $1,954,000 after buying an additional 1,051 shares during the period. Kestra Private Wealth Services LLC raised its stake in Bristol-Myers Squibb by 9.5% during the 3rd quarter. Kestra Private Wealth Services LLC now owns 139,811 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $8,115,000 after buying an additional 12,121 shares during the period. Metis Global Partners LLC lifted its holdings in Bristol-Myers Squibb by 14.8% during the third quarter. Metis Global Partners LLC now owns 101,772 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $5,907,000 after acquiring an additional 13,122 shares in the last quarter. Jmac Enterprises LLC grew its stake in Bristol-Myers Squibb by 11.4% in the third quarter. Jmac Enterprises LLC now owns 12,171 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $706,000 after acquiring an additional 1,245 shares during the period. Finally, Signaturefd LLC increased its holdings in shares of Bristol-Myers Squibb by 0.5% in the third quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 105,986 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $6,151,000 after acquiring an additional 564 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 76.41% of the company’s stock.

Bristol-Myers Squibb Stock Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.24, a current ratio of 1.43 and a quick ratio of 1.31. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $51.25 and a 200 day moving average price of $51.57. The company has a market cap of $97.89 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.51, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.49 and a beta of 0.39.

Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE:BMY) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Friday, February 2nd. The biopharmaceutical company reported $1.70 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.55 by $0.15. The company had revenue of $11.48 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $11.19 billion. Bristol-Myers Squibb had a net margin of 17.83% and a return on equity of 50.95%. The firm’s revenue was up .6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.82 earnings per share. As a group, analysts anticipate that Bristol-Myers Squibb will post 6.47 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Bristol-Myers Squibb Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, April 5th will be given a dividend of $0.60 per share. This represents a $2.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.97%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 4th. Bristol-Myers Squibb’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 62.18%.

Bristol-Myers Squibb Company Profile

Bristol-Myers Squibb Company discovers, develops, licenses, manufactures, markets, distributes, and sells biopharmaceutical products worldwide. It offers products for hematology, oncology, cardiovascular, immunology, fibrotic, and neuroscience diseases. The company's products include Eliquis for reduction in risk of stroke/systemic embolism in non-valvular atrial fibrillation, and for the treatment of DVT/PE; Opdivo for various anti-cancer indications, including bladder, blood, CRC, head and neck, RCC, HCC, lung, melanoma, MPM, stomach and esophageal cancer; Pomalyst/Imnovid for multiple myeloma; Orencia for active rheumatoid arthritis and psoriatic arthritis; and Sprycel for the treatment of Philadelphia chromosome-positive chronic myeloid leukemia.