Amphastar Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMPH) Receives Average Recommendation of “Hold” from Brokerages

Amphastar Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMPH) has been given a consensus recommendation of “Hold” by the eight research firms that are covering the firm, MarketBeat.com reports. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and two have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1-year price objective among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $31.00.

AMPH has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Needham & Company LLC lowered their price objective on Amphastar Pharmaceuticals from $36.00 to $34.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, November 7th. Zacks Research lowered shares of Amphastar Pharmaceuticals from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, November 14th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of Amphastar Pharmaceuticals in a research report on Monday, December 29th. Finally, Barclays started coverage on shares of Amphastar Pharmaceuticals in a research note on Tuesday, December 9th. They set an “equal weight” rating and a $30.00 target price for the company.

Insider Transactions at Amphastar Pharmaceuticals

In related news, EVP Rong Zhou sold 9,787 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, December 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $26.20, for a total value of $256,419.40. Following the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 138,043 shares in the company, valued at $3,616,726.60. This trade represents a 6.62% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Richard K. Prins sold 4,179 shares of Amphastar Pharmaceuticals stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $27.10, for a total value of $113,250.90. Following the sale, the director directly owned 35,183 shares in the company, valued at $953,459.30. The trade was a 10.62% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last three months, insiders sold 35,308 shares of company stock worth $931,637. Company insiders own 27.50% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Amphastar Pharmaceuticals

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of AMPH. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its position in shares of Amphastar Pharmaceuticals by 7.9% during the 3rd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,755,665 shares of the company’s stock worth $46,789,000 after buying an additional 128,781 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Amphastar Pharmaceuticals by 1.9% during the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 973,237 shares of the company’s stock valued at $22,348,000 after acquiring an additional 18,161 shares during the period. Marshall Wace LLP raised its holdings in Amphastar Pharmaceuticals by 3.0% during the third quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 874,068 shares of the company’s stock worth $23,294,000 after purchasing an additional 25,383 shares in the last quarter. Millennium Management LLC raised its holdings in Amphastar Pharmaceuticals by 12.7% during the third quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 697,765 shares of the company’s stock worth $18,595,000 after purchasing an additional 78,781 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Qube Research & Technologies Ltd lifted its position in Amphastar Pharmaceuticals by 81.3% in the second quarter. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd now owns 469,492 shares of the company’s stock worth $10,780,000 after purchasing an additional 210,511 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 65.09% of the company’s stock.

Amphastar Pharmaceuticals Price Performance

AMPH opened at $26.15 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 2.21, a current ratio of 3.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.78. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $26.67 and its 200 day moving average price is $26.02. Amphastar Pharmaceuticals has a fifty-two week low of $20.39 and a fifty-two week high of $37.65. The firm has a market cap of $1.20 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.57, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.65 and a beta of 0.89.

Amphastar Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:AMPH) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, November 6th. The company reported $0.93 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.83 by $0.10. The company had revenue of $191.84 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $186.90 million. Amphastar Pharmaceuticals had a return on equity of 19.70% and a net margin of 15.43%. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Amphastar Pharmaceuticals will post 3.49 earnings per share for the current year.

Amphastar Pharmaceuticals Company Profile

Amphastar Pharmaceuticals, Inc is a specialty pharmaceutical company headquartered in Rancho Cucamonga, California. Founded in 2004, Amphastar focuses on the development, manufacturing and commercialization of injectable and inhalation products. The company’s manufacturing facilities in California produce both generic and proprietary formulations designed to address urgent and chronic medical conditions.

Amphastar’s portfolio includes a range of injectable generics such as epinephrine, naloxone and lidocaine, serving hospital, emergency medical and retail pharmacy channels.