B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. Sells 9,985 Shares of Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE:BMY)

B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. lessened its stake in shares of Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE:BMY) by 6.1% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 153,110 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock after selling 9,985 shares during the period. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Bristol-Myers Squibb were worth $8,093,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in BMY. Patriot Financial Group Insurance Agency LLC raised its stake in Bristol-Myers Squibb by 3.8% in the third quarter. Patriot Financial Group Insurance Agency LLC now owns 5,595 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $289,000 after purchasing an additional 206 shares in the last quarter. Sheaff Brock Investment Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Bristol-Myers Squibb by 34.3% in the 3rd quarter. Sheaff Brock Investment Advisors LLC now owns 44,546 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $2,305,000 after buying an additional 11,387 shares during the period. iA Global Asset Management Inc. raised its position in shares of Bristol-Myers Squibb by 81.3% in the 3rd quarter. iA Global Asset Management Inc. now owns 76,775 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $3,972,000 after buying an additional 34,418 shares in the last quarter. Bellevue Group AG bought a new stake in shares of Bristol-Myers Squibb during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $1,905,000. Finally, Nwam LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Bristol-Myers Squibb during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $927,000. 76.41% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have commented on BMY. Sanford C. Bernstein started coverage on shares of Bristol-Myers Squibb in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. They set a “market perform” rating and a $56.00 price objective for the company. Leerink Partners upgraded Bristol-Myers Squibb from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $55.00 to $73.00 in a research report on Tuesday, November 12th. Wolfe Research assumed coverage on Bristol-Myers Squibb in a research note on Friday, November 15th. They issued a “peer perform” rating on the stock. Barclays boosted their target price on Bristol-Myers Squibb from $42.00 to $43.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Monday, October 7th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group raised their price target on shares of Bristol-Myers Squibb from $49.00 to $51.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 28th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, fourteen have given a hold rating, two have assigned a buy rating and three have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $54.29.

Bristol-Myers Squibb Stock Performance

NYSE BMY opened at $55.77 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $113.11 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -15.53, a PEG ratio of 15.20 and a beta of 0.45. Bristol-Myers Squibb has a twelve month low of $39.35 and a twelve month high of $61.08. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $55.86 and a 200 day simple moving average of $49.27. The company has a quick ratio of 1.09, a current ratio of 1.24 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.83.

Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE:BMY) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The biopharmaceutical company reported $1.80 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.49 by $0.31. The company had revenue of $11.89 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $11.26 billion. Bristol-Myers Squibb had a positive return on equity of 11.94% and a negative net margin of 15.30%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 8.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $2.00 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts expect that Bristol-Myers Squibb will post 0.93 EPS for the current year.

Bristol-Myers Squibb Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, February 3rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 3rd will be given a $0.62 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 3rd. This represents a $2.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.45%. This is an increase from Bristol-Myers Squibb’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.60. Bristol-Myers Squibb’s payout ratio is -66.85%.

Insider Activity

In other Bristol-Myers Squibb news, EVP Samit Hirawat purchased 1,830 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 1st. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $54.67 per share, with a total value of $100,046.10. Following the completion of the purchase, the executive vice president now owns 62,109 shares in the company, valued at $3,395,499.03. This represents a 3.04 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, SVP Phil M. Holzer sold 700 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $55.62, for a total transaction of $38,934.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 11,760 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $654,091.20. This trade represents a 5.62 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 0.09% of the company’s stock.

About Bristol-Myers Squibb

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.