Washington Trust Advisors Inc. Has $373,000 Stake in Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE:BMY)

Washington Trust Advisors Inc. cut its stake in Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE:BMY) by 20.8% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 7,267 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock after selling 1,903 shares during the period. Washington Trust Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Bristol-Myers Squibb were worth $373,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. OFI Invest Asset Management bought a new position in shares of Bristol-Myers Squibb during the third quarter worth about $25,000. True Wealth Design LLC bought a new stake in shares of Bristol-Myers Squibb in the fourth quarter worth $26,000. Milestone Investment Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Bristol-Myers Squibb during the third quarter worth $27,000. Coppell Advisory Solutions LLC bought a new position in Bristol-Myers Squibb in the second quarter valued at $28,000. Finally, Blue Bell Private Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in Bristol-Myers Squibb by 61.5% in the 3rd quarter. Blue Bell Private Wealth Management LLC now owns 525 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $30,000 after buying an additional 200 shares during the last quarter. 76.41% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

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

Bristol-Myers Squibb Trading Up 1.9 %

NYSE:BMY traded up $1.01 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $54.26. 5,923,223 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 16,727,746. The stock has a market capitalization of $109.97 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.95, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.59 and a beta of 0.38. Bristol-Myers Squibb has a one year low of $47.58 and a one year high of $71.07. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $50.73 and a 200 day simple moving average of $52.43. The company has a current ratio of 1.43, a quick ratio of 1.31 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.24.

Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE:BMY) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Friday, February 2nd. The biopharmaceutical company reported $1.70 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.55 by $0.15. The company had revenue of $11.48 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $11.19 billion. Bristol-Myers Squibb had a return on equity of 50.95% and a net margin of 17.83%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up .6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.82 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts expect that Bristol-Myers Squibb will post 6.61 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Bristol-Myers Squibb Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, April 5th will be given a dividend of $0.60 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 4th. This represents a $2.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.42%. Bristol-Myers Squibb’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 62.18%.

Bristol-Myers Squibb announced that its board has approved a stock repurchase program on Thursday, December 7th that allows the company to buyback $3.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization allows the biopharmaceutical company to reacquire up to 2.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are typically a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

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.