Searle & CO. Purchases 11,048 Shares of Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE:BMY)

Searle & CO. lifted its position in shares of Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE:BMY) by 11.9% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 104,081 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock after acquiring an additional 11,048 shares during the quarter. Bristol-Myers Squibb makes up approximately 1.5% of Searle & CO.’s portfolio, making the stock its 18th biggest position. Searle & CO.’s holdings in Bristol-Myers Squibb were worth $5,340,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. McClarren Financial Advisors Inc. boosted its position in Bristol-Myers Squibb by 532.7% during the fourth quarter. McClarren Financial Advisors Inc. now owns 1,879 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $96,000 after purchasing an additional 1,582 shares in the last quarter. Institute for Wealth Management LLC. boosted its position in Bristol-Myers Squibb by 1.0% during the fourth quarter. Institute for Wealth Management LLC. now owns 30,056 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $1,542,000 after purchasing an additional 296 shares in the last quarter. Herold Advisors Inc. boosted its position in Bristol-Myers Squibb by 3.2% during the third quarter. Herold Advisors Inc. now owns 33,668 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $1,954,000 after purchasing an additional 1,051 shares in the last quarter. Kestra Private Wealth Services LLC raised its stake 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 valued at $8,115,000 after buying an additional 12,121 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Metis Global Partners LLC raised its stake 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 valued at $5,907,000 after buying an additional 13,122 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 76.41% of the company’s stock.

Bristol-Myers Squibb Stock Performance

BMY stock traded up $0.27 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $44.21. 13,241,552 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 15,962,133. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.99, a current ratio of 1.11 and a quick ratio of 0.99. Bristol-Myers Squibb has a 1 year low of $43.73 and a 1 year high of $69.10. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $50.81 and its 200 day simple moving average is $50.93. The company has a market cap of $89.62 billion, a PE ratio of -14.21, a P/E/G ratio of 15.39 and a beta of 0.39.

Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE:BMY) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 25th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($4.40) EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($4.53) by $0.13. Bristol-Myers Squibb had a positive return on equity of 8.83% and a negative net margin of 13.50%. The company had revenue of $11.87 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $11.45 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $2.05 earnings per share. Bristol-Myers Squibb’s quarterly revenue was up 4.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts expect that Bristol-Myers Squibb will post 0.58 earnings per share 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. Stockholders of record on Friday, April 5th will be paid a $0.60 dividend. This represents a $2.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.43%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 4th. Bristol-Myers Squibb’s dividend payout ratio is presently -77.42%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have commented on BMY. StockNews.com cut Bristol-Myers Squibb from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, April 15th. Societe Generale cut Bristol-Myers Squibb from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, March 11th. Redburn Atlantic cut Bristol-Myers Squibb from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their price target for the company from $77.00 to $54.00 in a research note on Tuesday, February 6th. Barclays decreased their price target on Bristol-Myers Squibb from $51.00 to $43.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, April 26th. Finally, William Blair restated a “market perform” rating on shares of Bristol-Myers Squibb in a research note on Monday, April 1st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, fifteen have assigned a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $60.00.

Bristol-Myers Squibb 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.