Amphastar Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:AMPH) Stock Rating Raised to “Strong-Buy” at Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Amphastar Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:AMPH) from a buy rating to a strong-buy rating in a research note released on Saturday,Wall Street Zen reports.

Several other research analysts have also recently weighed in on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on shares of Amphastar Pharmaceuticals from $19.00 to $20.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, August 7th. Zacks Research upgraded Amphastar Pharmaceuticals from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 21st. Weiss Ratings reissued a “sell (d+)” rating on shares of Amphastar Pharmaceuticals in a research note on Wednesday, July 8th. Bank of America restated an “underperform” rating and set a $20.00 target price (down from $25.00) on shares of Amphastar Pharmaceuticals in a research report on Monday, June 29th. Finally, Piper Sandler cut their price target on Amphastar Pharmaceuticals from $21.00 to $20.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, August 7th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Reduce” and an average price target of $22.50.

Amphastar Pharmaceuticals Trading Up 0.3%

AMPH opened at $25.43 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 2.40, a quick ratio of 1.71 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.08 billion, a PE ratio of 15.05, a PEG ratio of 4.90 and a beta of 0.90. Amphastar Pharmaceuticals has a 1-year low of $16.65 and a 1-year high of $29.52. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $22.56 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $20.79.

Amphastar Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:AMPH) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, August 6th. The company reported $0.91 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.62 by $0.29. Amphastar Pharmaceuticals had a net margin of 10.76% and a return on equity of 14.98%. The company had revenue of $183.90 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $179.92 million. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Amphastar Pharmaceuticals will post 2.46 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Amphastar Pharmaceuticals

In other Amphastar Pharmaceuticals news, EVP Rong Zhou sold 10,000 shares of Amphastar Pharmaceuticals stock in a transaction on Wednesday, September 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $23.94, for a total transaction of $239,400.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president owned 169,203 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,050,719.82. The trade was a 5.58% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Richard K. Prins sold 7,973 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $20.30, for a total transaction of $161,851.90. Following the sale, the director owned 29,625 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $601,387.50. The trade was a 21.21% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold 33,479 shares of company stock worth $763,922 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 29.60% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Engineers Gate Manager LP bought a new stake in Amphastar Pharmaceuticals in the second quarter valued at about $609,000. Squarepoint Ops LLC boosted its holdings in Amphastar Pharmaceuticals by 178.0% during the second quarter. Squarepoint Ops LLC now owns 78,795 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,590,000 after buying an additional 50,450 shares during the last quarter. Empowered Funds LLC acquired a new position in shares of Amphastar Pharmaceuticals during the 2nd quarter worth about $3,286,000. Bank of America Corp DE acquired a new position in shares of Amphastar Pharmaceuticals during the 2nd quarter worth about $2,761,000. Finally, Man Group plc bought a new stake in shares of Amphastar Pharmaceuticals in the 2nd quarter valued at about $350,000. 65.09% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

About Amphastar Pharmaceuticals

Amphastar Pharmaceuticals, Inc is a biopharmaceutical company that develops, manufactures and markets injectable, inhaled and intranasal products. The company focuses on technically challenging medicines, including generic and proprietary products used in emergency care, respiratory treatment, diabetes management and other therapeutic areas.

Its marketed products include Primatene MIST, an over-the-counter epinephrine inhaler for temporary relief of mild, intermittent asthma symptoms; BAQSIMI, a ready-to-use nasal glucagon product for severe hypoglycemia; glucagon injection; Amphadase, a hyaluronidase product; and enoxaparin, an anticoagulant.