Roman Butler Fullerton & Co. Reduces Holdings in Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE:BMY)

Roman Butler Fullerton & Co. lessened its position in Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE:BMY) by 8.7% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 17,429 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock after selling 1,652 shares during the quarter. Roman Butler Fullerton & Co.’s holdings in Bristol-Myers Squibb were worth $866,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Bristol-Myers Squibb during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $1,873,696,000. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Bristol-Myers Squibb by 114,228.7% during the 4th quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 21,469,785 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $1,544,751,000 after acquiring an additional 21,451,006 shares during the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in Bristol-Myers Squibb by 48.0% during the 4th quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 7,830,948 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $401,806,000 after acquiring an additional 2,540,360 shares during the period. AustralianSuper Pty Ltd bought a new position in Bristol-Myers Squibb in the 4th quarter valued at $86,965,000. Finally, Cowa LLC increased its stake in Bristol-Myers Squibb by 9,777.8% in the first quarter. Cowa LLC now owns 1,657,894 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $1,211,000 after purchasing an additional 1,641,110 shares during the period. 76.41% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have recently commented on the stock. Redburn Atlantic cut shares of Bristol-Myers Squibb from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and cut their price target for the stock from $77.00 to $54.00 in a report on Tuesday, February 6th. William Blair reaffirmed a “market perform” rating on shares of Bristol-Myers Squibb in a research report on Monday, April 1st. Societe Generale downgraded Bristol-Myers Squibb from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, March 11th. StockNews.com downgraded Bristol-Myers Squibb from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Monday. Finally, Bank of America cut shares of Bristol-Myers Squibb from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their target price for the stock from $68.00 to $60.00 in a report on Wednesday, January 3rd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, fifteen have assigned a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $61.12.

Bristol-Myers Squibb Stock Performance

BMY stock traded up $0.23 during trading on Thursday, reaching $48.07. The company had a trading volume of 1,933,497 shares, compared to its average volume of 15,655,545. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $51.26 and a 200-day simple moving average of $51.59. The company has a market cap of $97.43 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.39, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.49 and a beta of 0.39. Bristol-Myers Squibb has a twelve month low of $47.58 and a twelve month high of $70.93. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.24, a quick ratio of 1.31 and a current ratio of 1.43.

Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE:BMY) last released its earnings results on Friday, February 2nd. The biopharmaceutical company reported $1.70 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 firm 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 firm earned $1.82 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up .6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Bristol-Myers Squibb will post 6.47 earnings per share for the current year.

Bristol-Myers Squibb Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 1st. Investors of record on Friday, April 5th will be issued a $0.60 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 4th. This represents a $2.40 annualized dividend and a 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.