Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE:BMY) Trading 0.5% Higher on Analyst Upgrade

Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE:BMY) 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 changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 85% from the average session volume of 15,664,869 shares. The stock had previously closed at $47.84.

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

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Bristol-Myers Squibb

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Herold Advisors Inc. increased its holdings 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 worth $1,954,000 after buying an additional 1,051 shares during the last quarter. Kestra Private Wealth Services LLC increased its holdings in Bristol-Myers Squibb by 9.5% in the third 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 last quarter. Metis Global Partners LLC increased its holdings in Bristol-Myers Squibb by 14.8% in the third quarter. Metis Global Partners LLC now owns 101,772 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $5,907,000 after buying an additional 13,122 shares during the last quarter. Jmac Enterprises LLC lifted its position 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 worth $706,000 after purchasing an additional 1,245 shares during the period. Finally, Signaturefd LLC raised its stake in Bristol-Myers Squibb by 0.5% during 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 and hedge funds own 76.41% of the company’s stock.

Bristol-Myers Squibb Stock Up 0.6 %

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 has a 50 day simple moving average of $51.26 and a 200-day simple moving average of $51.59. The stock has a market capitalization of $97.57 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.46, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.49 and a beta of 0.39.

Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE:BMY) last announced its earnings results on Friday, February 2nd. The biopharmaceutical company reported $1.70 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.55 by $0.15. Bristol-Myers Squibb had a return on equity of 50.95% and a net margin of 17.83%. The company had revenue of $11.48 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $11.19 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.82 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up .6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Bristol-Myers Squibb will post 6.47 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Bristol-Myers Squibb Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, April 5th will be paid a $0.60 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 4th. This represents a $2.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.99%. Bristol-Myers Squibb’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) 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.