Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE:BMY) Shares Purchased by Merit Financial Group LLC

Merit Financial Group LLC increased its holdings in Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE:BMY - Free Report) by 34.1% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 42,435 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock after buying an additional 10,796 shares during the quarter. Merit Financial Group LLC's holdings in Bristol-Myers Squibb were worth $2,400,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of BMY. State Street Corp boosted its stake in shares of Bristol-Myers Squibb by 1.6% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 92,896,580 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock worth $4,806,469,000 after buying an additional 1,451,214 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of Bristol-Myers Squibb by 3.3% during the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 61,030,403 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock worth $3,157,713,000 after purchasing an additional 1,968,729 shares during the period. FMR LLC increased its holdings in shares of Bristol-Myers Squibb by 10.5% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 44,940,609 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock valued at $2,325,227,000 after purchasing an additional 4,275,787 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Bristol-Myers Squibb by 2.5% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 43,204,016 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock valued at $2,228,425,000 after purchasing an additional 1,036,495 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc lifted its stake in shares of Bristol-Myers Squibb by 3.8% in the 2nd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 20,225,040 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock valued at $839,946,000 after purchasing an additional 735,613 shares during the period. 76.41% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Bristol-Myers Squibb

In other Bristol-Myers Squibb news, SVP Phil M. Holzer sold 700 shares of the company's stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 11,760 shares in the company, valued at $654,091.20. This represents a 5.62 % decrease 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, EVP Samit Hirawat acquired 1,830 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 1st. The stock was 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 directly owns 62,109 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $3,395,499.03. This represents a 3.04 % increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Company insiders own 0.09% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have weighed in on the stock. Citigroup upped their price objective on shares of Bristol-Myers Squibb from $55.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 12th. TD Cowen increased their price target on Bristol-Myers Squibb from $53.00 to $59.00 and gave the stock a "hold" rating in a research report on Monday, October 7th. UBS Group boosted their price objective on Bristol-Myers Squibb from $50.00 to $54.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 9th. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on shares of Bristol-Myers Squibb from $36.00 to $39.00 and gave the company an "underweight" rating in a report on Tuesday, November 12th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group upgraded shares of Bristol-Myers Squibb from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and lifted their target price for the company from $63.00 to $70.00 in a research report on Monday, December 16th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have given a hold rating, four have assigned a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $56.27.

Bristol-Myers Squibb Trading Down 0.0 %

Shares of BMY stock traded down $0.03 on Monday, hitting $56.35. 10,909,530 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 10,195,547. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.83, a quick ratio of 1.09 and a current ratio of 1.24. Bristol-Myers Squibb has a twelve month low of $39.35 and a twelve month high of $61.08. The firm's 50-day moving average price is $57.53 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $52.09. The stock has a market capitalization of $114.30 billion, a PE ratio of -15.70, a PEG ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 0.45.

Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE:BMY - Get Free Report) last posted its 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 for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $11.26 billion. Bristol-Myers Squibb had a negative net margin of 15.30% and a positive return on equity of 11.94%. Bristol-Myers Squibb's revenue was up 8.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $2.00 EPS. As a group, analysts anticipate that Bristol-Myers Squibb will post 0.93 EPS for the current year.

Bristol-Myers Squibb Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, February 3rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 3rd will be paid a dividend of $0.62 per share. This is a boost from Bristol-Myers Squibb's previous quarterly dividend of $0.60. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 3rd. This represents a $2.48 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.40%. Bristol-Myers Squibb's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is -69.08%.

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.