Stock Traders Buy Large Volume of Call Options on Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE:BMY)

Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE:BMY) was the target of some unusual options trading on Friday. Investors bought 53,817 call options on the stock. This is an increase of approximately 37% compared to the typical volume of 39,409 call options.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in BMY. Capital International Investors grew its holdings in shares of Bristol-Myers Squibb by 14.1% in the 1st quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 70,203,814 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $3,807,153,000 after buying an additional 8,675,322 shares during the period. M&G Plc acquired a new stake in Bristol-Myers Squibb in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $392,608,000. Pzena Investment Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Bristol-Myers Squibb by 119.8% in the first quarter. Pzena Investment Management LLC now owns 12,293,913 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $666,699,000 after purchasing an additional 6,701,097 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its holdings in shares of Bristol-Myers Squibb by 77.1% in the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 12,547,823 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $680,469,000 after acquiring an additional 5,461,767 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Van ECK Associates Corp raised its stake in Bristol-Myers Squibb by 97.2% in the 1st quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 7,949,173 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $431,084,000 after acquiring an additional 3,918,234 shares during the period. 76.41% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have weighed in on the company. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their price target on Bristol-Myers Squibb from $49.00 to $51.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 28th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lowered their price target on Bristol-Myers Squibb from $53.00 to $45.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, July 23rd. TD Cowen raised their target price on shares of Bristol-Myers Squibb from $45.00 to $53.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, August 12th. BMO Capital Markets restated a “market perform” rating and set a $48.00 price target on shares of Bristol-Myers Squibb in a report on Monday. Finally, Barclays lifted their price objective on Bristol-Myers Squibb from $41.00 to $42.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 22nd. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have assigned a hold rating, two have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Bristol-Myers Squibb has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $55.00.

Bristol-Myers Squibb Price Performance

BMY stock traded up $0.79 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $50.91. 22,222,755 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 15,040,696. The company has a quick ratio of 1.02, a current ratio of 1.16 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.86. The company has a market cap of $103.20 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -16.69, a PEG ratio of 12.96 and a beta of 0.46. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $48.36 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $46.41. Bristol-Myers Squibb has a 1-year low of $39.35 and a 1-year high of $58.46.

Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE:BMY) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Friday, July 26th. The biopharmaceutical company reported $2.07 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.64 by $0.43. Bristol-Myers Squibb had a negative net margin of 14.06% and a positive return on equity of 12.51%. The firm had revenue of $12.20 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $11.54 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.75 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 8.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts anticipate that Bristol-Myers Squibb will post 0.77 earnings per share for the current year.

Bristol-Myers Squibb Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 4th will be paid a $0.60 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, October 4th. This represents a $2.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.71%. Bristol-Myers Squibb’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently -77.42%.

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.