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

Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE:BMY)’s stock price was 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. Approximately 2,345,663 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 85% from the average daily volume of 15,664,869 shares. The stock had previously closed at $47.84.

A number of other equities analysts have also recently weighed in on BMY. StockNews.com cut shares of Bristol-Myers Squibb from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, April 15th. Redburn Atlantic lowered shares of Bristol-Myers Squibb from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their target price for the company from $77.00 to $54.00 in a report on Tuesday, February 6th. Bank of America lowered shares of Bristol-Myers Squibb from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and cut their price objective for the stock from $68.00 to $60.00 in a report on Wednesday, January 3rd. Societe Generale lowered shares of Bristol-Myers Squibb from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, March 11th. Finally, William Blair reaffirmed a “market perform” rating on shares of Bristol-Myers Squibb in a research report on Monday, April 1st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, fifteen have issued a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $61.18.

Institutional Trading of Bristol-Myers Squibb

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. OFI Invest Asset Management bought a new stake in shares of Bristol-Myers Squibb in the third quarter worth $25,000. True Wealth Design LLC acquired a new position in shares of Bristol-Myers Squibb during the fourth quarter valued at $26,000. Milestone Investment Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Bristol-Myers Squibb in the third quarter worth about $27,000. Northwest Financial Advisors acquired a new stake in Bristol-Myers Squibb in the fourth quarter worth about $27,000. Finally, Coppell Advisory Solutions LLC acquired a new stake in Bristol-Myers Squibb in the second quarter worth about $28,000. Institutional investors own 76.41% of the company’s stock.

Bristol-Myers Squibb Stock Up 1.3 %

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 firm’s fifty day moving average is $51.23 and its two-hundred day moving average is $51.51. The firm has a market cap of $99.17 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.68, a P/E/G ratio of 1.44 and a beta of 0.39.

Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE:BMY) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, February 2nd. The biopharmaceutical company reported $1.70 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.55 by $0.15. The firm had revenue of $11.48 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $11.19 billion. Bristol-Myers Squibb had a net margin of 17.83% and a return on equity of 50.95%. Bristol-Myers Squibb’s revenue for the quarter was up .6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.82 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Bristol-Myers Squibb will post 6.63 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Bristol-Myers Squibb Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, April 5th will be issued a dividend of $0.60 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 4th. This represents a $2.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.90%. Bristol-Myers Squibb’s payout ratio is presently 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.