Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE:BMY) Trading Up 1.1%

Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE:BMY) rose 1.1% on Thursday . The company traded as high as $53.84 and last traded at $53.83. Approximately 1,606,806 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 90% from the average daily volume of 16,659,934 shares. The stock had previously closed at $53.25.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages recently issued reports on BMY. Bank of America cut Bristol-Myers Squibb from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their price objective for the stock from $68.00 to $60.00 in a research note on Wednesday, January 3rd. StockNews.com raised shares of Bristol-Myers Squibb from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, March 1st. Wells Fargo & Company cut their target price on shares of Bristol-Myers Squibb from $58.00 to $51.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, February 6th. Societe Generale cut Bristol-Myers Squibb from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, March 11th. Finally, Redburn Atlantic lowered Bristol-Myers Squibb from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their price objective for the company from $77.00 to $54.00 in a research report on Tuesday, February 6th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, fifteen have issued a hold rating, three have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $61.12.

Bristol-Myers Squibb Price Performance

The business’s fifty day moving average is $50.79 and its 200 day moving average is $52.44. The firm has a market capitalization of $109.91 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.08, a P/E/G ratio of 1.59 and a beta of 0.38. The company has a current ratio of 1.43, a quick ratio of 1.31 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.24.

Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE:BMY) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Friday, February 2nd. The biopharmaceutical company reported $1.70 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.55 by $0.15. Bristol-Myers Squibb had a net margin of 17.83% and a return on equity of 50.95%. The firm had revenue of $11.48 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $11.19 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.82 EPS. The company’s revenue was up .6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts forecast that Bristol-Myers Squibb will post 6.61 EPS for the current year.

Bristol-Myers Squibb Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, April 5th will be given a $0.60 dividend. This represents a $2.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.43%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 4th. Bristol-Myers Squibb’s payout ratio is currently 62.18%.

Bristol-Myers Squibb announced that its board has approved a stock buyback program on Thursday, December 7th that allows the company to repurchase $3.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the biopharmaceutical company to purchase up to 2.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are typically a sign that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Bristol-Myers Squibb in the 4th quarter valued at $1,560,524,000. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Bristol-Myers Squibb by 114,228.7% in the fourth quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 21,469,785 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $1,544,751,000 after buying an additional 21,451,006 shares during the period. Van ECK Associates Corp grew its position in Bristol-Myers Squibb by 792.6% during the fourth quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 4,030,939 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $206,828,000 after buying an additional 3,579,324 shares in the last quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA increased its stake in Bristol-Myers Squibb by 14.6% during the fourth quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA now owns 23,534,378 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $1,207,549,000 after acquiring an additional 2,998,228 shares during the period. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc lifted its position in shares of Bristol-Myers Squibb by 16.6% in the 4th quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 19,811,009 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $1,016,502,000 after acquiring an additional 2,814,746 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 76.41% of the company’s stock.

About Bristol-Myers Squibb

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.