Ledyard National Bank Cuts Stake in Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE:BMY)

Ledyard National Bank trimmed its holdings in Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE:BMY) by 6.1% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 23,670 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock after selling 1,548 shares during the period. Ledyard National Bank’s holdings in Bristol-Myers Squibb were worth $1,339,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in BMY. State Street Corp increased its holdings 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 period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in Bristol-Myers Squibb by 3.3% in 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 lifted its position in Bristol-Myers Squibb by 10.5% in the third 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 during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Bristol-Myers Squibb by 2.5% during the third 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 during the period. Finally, UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC increased its stake in shares of Bristol-Myers Squibb by 18.7% in the third quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 19,074,823 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $986,931,000 after buying an additional 3,002,418 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 76.41% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have weighed in on BMY. Leerink Partners raised shares of Bristol-Myers Squibb from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and increased their price target for the company from $55.00 to $73.00 in a research report on Tuesday, November 12th. Sanford C. Bernstein started coverage on Bristol-Myers Squibb in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. They issued a “market perform” rating and a $56.00 target price on the stock. BMO Capital Markets upped their price target on Bristol-Myers Squibb from $57.00 to $61.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 12th. Daiwa America upgraded Bristol-Myers Squibb from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 13th. Finally, Truist Financial upped their target price on Bristol-Myers Squibb from $62.00 to $65.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have given a hold rating, four have given a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Bristol-Myers Squibb presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $57.14.

Bristol-Myers Squibb Price Performance

Shares of NYSE BMY opened at $57.43 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.83, a quick ratio of 1.09 and a current ratio of 1.24. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $57.65 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $53.63. Bristol-Myers Squibb has a fifty-two week low of $39.35 and a fifty-two week high of $61.10. The company has a market capitalization of $116.47 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -16.00, a P/E/G ratio of 2.10 and a beta of 0.45.

Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE:BMY) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 6th. The biopharmaceutical company reported $1.67 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.47 by $0.20. Bristol-Myers Squibb had a positive return on equity of 11.94% and a negative net margin of 15.30%. Analysts expect that Bristol-Myers Squibb will post 0.92 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Bristol-Myers Squibb Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, February 3rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 3rd were paid a dividend of $0.62 per share. This is a positive change from Bristol-Myers Squibb’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.60. This represents a $2.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.32%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, January 3rd. Bristol-Myers Squibb’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently -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.