FLC Capital Advisors Trims Stake in Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE:BMY)

FLC Capital Advisors lessened its holdings in shares of Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE:BMY) by 4.4% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 5,968 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock after selling 277 shares during the quarter. FLC Capital Advisors’ holdings in Bristol-Myers Squibb were worth $306,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of BMY. State Street Corp raised its holdings in Bristol-Myers Squibb by 0.9% in the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 92,570,288 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $5,919,870,000 after purchasing an additional 858,922 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Bristol-Myers Squibb during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $1,873,696,000. Northern Trust Corp raised its holdings in shares of Bristol-Myers Squibb by 5.8% in the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 25,292,711 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $1,467,989,000 after buying an additional 1,394,158 shares during the last quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC raised 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 worth $1,544,751,000 after purchasing an additional 21,451,006 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. boosted its position in Bristol-Myers Squibb by 8.6% in the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 15,606,587 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $905,806,000 after buying an additional 1,240,902 shares during the last quarter. 76.41% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

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

Bristol-Myers Squibb Trading Up 1.8 %

Bristol-Myers Squibb stock traded up $0.98 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $54.23. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 13,440,021 shares, compared to its average volume of 16,859,297. Bristol-Myers Squibb has a 1 year low of $47.58 and a 1 year high of $71.07. The company has a current ratio of 1.43, a quick ratio of 1.31 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.24. The firm has a market capitalization of $109.91 billion, a PE ratio of 14.08, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.59 and a beta of 0.38. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $50.79 and its two-hundred day moving average is $52.44.

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, topping the consensus estimate 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 company had revenue of $11.48 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $11.19 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.82 earnings per share. Bristol-Myers Squibb’s revenue was up .6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts anticipate that Bristol-Myers Squibb will post 6.61 EPS for the current 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 given a dividend of $0.60 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 4th. This represents a $2.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.43%. Bristol-Myers Squibb’s dividend payout ratio is currently 62.18%.

Bristol-Myers Squibb declared that its Board of Directors has approved a share repurchase plan on Thursday, December 7th that permits the company to buyback $3.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the biopharmaceutical company to repurchase up to 2.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are often a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

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.