Thomasville National Bank Cuts Holdings in Bristol-Myers Squibb by 6.6%
Investment firm, Thomasville National Bank, has lowered its stake in Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMY) by 6.6% during the first quarter of this year. According to the company’s latest 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), it now owns 25,821 shares of the pharmaceutical company’s stock after selling 1,812 shares in the recent period. The valuation of Thomasville National Bank’s holdings was recorded as $1,790,000 at the conclusion of this reporting period.
This move came shortly after Bristol-Myers Squibb had released its earnings results on April 27th. The biopharmaceutical giant revealed an impressive $2.05 earnings per share (EPS) for that quarter – beating analysts’ consensus estimates by $0.07 with a return on equity of 51.75% as well as a net margin of 15.95%. However, revenues were down from analysts’ estimated $11.50 billion at just $11.34 billion; a decline attributed to a decrease of 2.7% over last year’s figures during that same time frame.
Despite these results, market analysis show an optimistic outlook for Bristol-Myers Squibb with equities experts projecting approximately $8.06 earnings per share for the current financial year.
As we delve further into other significant actions recently taken by players within Bristol-Myers Squibb’s executive branch; one notices that Executive Vice President Rupert Vessey sold off nearly half his holdings recently when he unloaded 50,385 shares of BMY stocks at an average price point of $67.06 per share on May 3rd – amounting to a whopping total sum sale value of nearly three and half million dollars ($3,378,818.10). He now holds only 47,751 shares in the company, valued at around $3,202,182.06.
It is worth noting that the aforementioned sale was disclosed through SEC filings and that corporate insiders presently own approximately 0.08% of the entire company’s stock.
In conclusion, it appears as though Thomasville National Bank has taken a mindful approach in reducing its stake in Bristol-Myers Squibb however despite this decision and Vessey’s recent stock sales – analysts seem hopeful concerning estimated earnings per share for the remainder of this year. Meanwhile though stocks remain somewhat volatile following these announcements and continue to remain a talking point amongst experts .
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Bristol-Myers Squibb: Attracting Attention from Institutional Investors and Hedge Funds Despite Recent Dividend Drop
[stock_market_widget type=”chart” template=”basic” color=”#3946CE” assets=”BMY” range=”1mo” interval=”1d” axes=”true” cursor=”true” range_selector=”true” api=”yf”]Bristol-Myers Squibb, a biopharmaceutical company based in New York, has recently been the focus of much attention from hedge funds and institutional investors. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Bristol-Myers Squibb during the fourth quarter of 2016 worth approximately $1.87 billion, while Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC raised its stake by an incredible 114,228.7% during the same period after buying an additional 21.4 million shares.
Similarly, Boston Partners raised its stake by 35.7% and BlackRock Inc., which already owned a significant percentage of the company’s stock, increased their share further by purchasing an extra 3.3 million shares during Q3 of last year. Edmp Inc. also raised their stake in Bristol-Myers Squibb by a massive 6,884.3% during Q4.
All these transactions explain why over 74% of Bristol-Myers Squibb’s stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.
Although there have been encouraging signs for investors, with the recent sale of almost $3.4m worth of stock by EVP Rupert Vessey in May of this year being one such indicator. Unfortunately for shareholders though, Vessey’s sale wasn’t enough to reverse declining prices that followed shortly after news broke that quarterly dividends had dropped from $0.64 to $0.57 per share; however this did cement it’s place as a promising stock that offered higher than average yields.
Currently trading at around $66 per share and with its market cap standing at almost $139 billion, Bristol-Myers Squibb has experienced both highs and lows over the past twelve months – jumping up from just over $63 in recent months to around $81 last summer.
Despite dropping back somewhat since then – hence Barclays cutting their price target on Bristol-Myers Squibb from $66.00 to $65.00 in a recent research note – the stock still offers investors promising long-term investment potential; Bank of America recently raised their price target on the stocks’ price from $82 to $85 and shareholders will no doubt hope this is indicative of further sustained growth moving forwards, particularly with its dividend payout ratio hovering around two-thirds of profits: 66.47%.
