SlateStone Wealth LLC Lowers Holdings in Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE:BMY)

SlateStone Wealth LLC decreased its position in Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE:BMY) by 8.6% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 5,294 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock after selling 498 shares during the period. SlateStone Wealth LLC’s holdings in Bristol-Myers Squibb were worth $272,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Northern Trust Corp raised its stake in Bristol-Myers Squibb by 5.8% in the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 25,292,711 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $1,467,989,000 after buying an additional 1,394,158 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. raised its stake in Bristol-Myers Squibb by 8.6% in the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 15,606,587 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $905,806,000 after buying an additional 1,240,902 shares in the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. raised its stake in Bristol-Myers Squibb by 48.0% in the fourth quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 7,830,948 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $401,806,000 after buying an additional 2,540,360 shares in the last quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. raised its stake in Bristol-Myers Squibb by 3.2% in the fourth quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. now owns 5,594,092 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $287,033,000 after buying an additional 172,769 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Pzena Investment Management LLC raised its stake in Bristol-Myers Squibb by 13.8% in the third quarter. Pzena Investment Management LLC now owns 4,924,194 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $285,800,000 after buying an additional 596,625 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 76.41% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts recently commented on the stock. William Blair reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of Bristol-Myers Squibb in a research note on Monday, April 1st. Societe Generale downgraded Bristol-Myers Squibb from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, March 11th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on Bristol-Myers Squibb from $51.00 to $52.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 18th. StockNews.com downgraded Bristol-Myers Squibb from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, April 15th. Finally, Bank of America lowered shares of Bristol-Myers Squibb from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their price objective for the company from $68.00 to $60.00 in a report on Wednesday, January 3rd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, fifteen have issued a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $61.18.

Bristol-Myers Squibb Price Performance

Shares of BMY traded up $0.08 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, hitting $49.22. 4,335,160 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 15,461,111. Bristol-Myers Squibb has a 1-year low of $47.58 and a 1-year high of $70.93. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.24, a quick ratio of 1.31 and a current ratio of 1.43. The company has a 50 day moving average of $51.22 and a 200-day moving average of $51.38. The stock has a market cap of $99.76 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.76, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.48 and a beta of 0.39.

Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE:BMY) last released its quarterly earnings data on Friday, February 2nd. The biopharmaceutical company reported $1.70 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.55 by $0.15. The company had revenue of $11.48 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $11.19 billion. Bristol-Myers Squibb had a net margin of 17.83% and a return on equity of 50.95%. Bristol-Myers Squibb’s quarterly revenue was up .6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.82 EPS. Analysts expect that Bristol-Myers Squibb will post 6.63 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Bristol-Myers Squibb Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, April 5th will be issued a $0.60 dividend. 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 4.88%. Bristol-Myers Squibb’s payout ratio is 62.18%.

Bristol-Myers Squibb Profile

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.