Tufton Capital Management Sells 5,788 Shares of Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE:BMY)

Tufton Capital Management decreased its position in Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE:BMY) by 4.1% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 134,548 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock after selling 5,788 shares during the quarter. Tufton Capital Management’s holdings in Bristol-Myers Squibb were worth $6,904,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Herold Advisors Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Bristol-Myers Squibb by 3.2% during 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 in the last quarter. Kestra Private Wealth Services LLC raised its position in Bristol-Myers Squibb by 9.5% in the 3rd quarter. Kestra Private Wealth Services LLC now owns 139,811 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $8,115,000 after purchasing an additional 12,121 shares during the last quarter. Metis Global Partners LLC boosted 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 worth $5,907,000 after purchasing an additional 13,122 shares in the last quarter. Jmac Enterprises LLC grew its holdings in shares of Bristol-Myers Squibb by 11.4% during 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 last quarter. Finally, Signaturefd LLC increased its stake in shares of Bristol-Myers Squibb by 0.5% in the third quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 105,986 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $6,151,000 after buying an additional 564 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 76.41% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have commented on BMY shares. StockNews.com lowered shares of Bristol-Myers Squibb from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Monday. William Blair reaffirmed a “market perform” rating on shares of Bristol-Myers Squibb in a research note on Monday, April 1st. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on Bristol-Myers Squibb from $51.00 to $52.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday. Redburn Atlantic cut Bristol-Myers Squibb from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and cut their target price for the company from $77.00 to $54.00 in a research note on Tuesday, February 6th. Finally, Societe Generale lowered shares of Bristol-Myers Squibb from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, March 11th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, fifteen have assigned a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $61.18.

Bristol-Myers Squibb Stock Performance

NYSE:BMY traded up $0.26 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $48.10. 3,102,613 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 15,673,779. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.24, a quick ratio of 1.31 and a current ratio of 1.43. The stock has a market capitalization of $97.49 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.46, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.49 and a beta of 0.39. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $51.26 and its 200 day simple moving average is $51.59. Bristol-Myers Squibb has a fifty-two week low of $47.58 and a fifty-two week high of $70.93.

Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE:BMY) last released its quarterly earnings results on Friday, February 2nd. The biopharmaceutical company reported $1.70 EPS for the quarter, beating 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 business had revenue of $11.48 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $11.19 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.82 earnings per share. Bristol-Myers Squibb’s revenue was up .6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Bristol-Myers Squibb will post 6.47 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Bristol-Myers Squibb Announces Dividend

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