Amphastar Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:AMPH) Cut to Buy at Wall Street Zen

by · The Cerbat Gem

Wall Street Zen cut shares of Amphastar Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:AMPH – Free Report) from a strong-buy rating to a buy rating in a research note published on Saturday,Wall Street Zen reports.

Several other brokerages have also issued reports on AMPH. Barclays boosted their target price on Amphastar Pharmaceuticals from $20.00 to $23.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 18th. Piper Sandler dropped their target price on shares of Amphastar Pharmaceuticals from $21.00 to $20.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, August 7th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “sell (d+)” rating on shares of Amphastar Pharmaceuticals in a research report on Wednesday, July 8th. Bank of America reiterated an “underperform” rating and issued a $20.00 price target (down from $25.00) on shares of Amphastar Pharmaceuticals in a report on Monday, June 29th. Finally, Zacks Research raised Amphastar Pharmaceuticals from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 21st. Six analysts have rated the stock with a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Reduce” and a consensus target price of $22.50.

View Our Latest Analysis on AMPH

Amphastar Pharmaceuticals Trading Up 0.5%

Shares of Amphastar Pharmaceuticals stock opened at $23.91 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.02 billion, a PE ratio of 14.15, a P/E/G ratio of 4.58 and a beta of 0.92. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79, a current ratio of 2.40 and a quick ratio of 1.71. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $20.92 and its 200-day simple moving average is $20.35. Amphastar Pharmaceuticals has a 1-year low of $16.65 and a 1-year high of $29.52.

Amphastar Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:AMPH – Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 6th. The company reported $0.91 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.62 by $0.29. The firm had revenue of $183.90 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $179.92 million. Amphastar Pharmaceuticals had a net margin of 10.76% and a return on equity of 14.98%. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Amphastar Pharmaceuticals will post 2.46 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Amphastar Pharmaceuticals

In other news, CFO William Peters sold 8,180 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $22.48, for a total transaction of $183,886.40. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 172,846 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,885,578.08. This trade represents a 4.52% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, EVP Rong Zhou sold 3,187 shares of Amphastar Pharmaceuticals stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, September 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $23.63, for a total transaction of $75,308.81. Following the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 169,203 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,998,266.89. The trade was a 1.85% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. In the last quarter, insiders sold 19,340 shares of company stock valued at $421,047. Company insiders own 29.60% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. California State Teachers Retirement System grew its position in Amphastar Pharmaceuticals by 2,477.9% during the 2nd quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 729,527 shares of the company’s stock worth $14,722,000 after purchasing an additional 701,228 shares during the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp purchased a new position in shares of Amphastar Pharmaceuticals in the second quarter worth $4,689,000. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its stake in shares of Amphastar Pharmaceuticals by 12.7% during the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,027,947 shares of the company’s stock worth $39,726,000 after buying an additional 228,262 shares during the period. Pacer Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Amphastar Pharmaceuticals by 2,864.4% during the fourth quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 177,744 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,760,000 after buying an additional 171,748 shares during the period. Finally, Empowered Funds LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Amphastar Pharmaceuticals during the second quarter worth $3,286,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 65.09% of the company’s stock.

About Amphastar Pharmaceuticals

(Get Free Report)

Amphastar Pharmaceuticals, Inc is a biopharmaceutical company that develops, manufactures and markets injectable, inhaled and intranasal products. The company focuses on complex and technically challenging medicines, including products for diabetes, emergency medicine, respiratory conditions and other specialty-care applications.

Its marketed products include glucagon for treating severe hypoglycemia, BAQSIMI nasal glucagon, Primatene MIST for temporary relief of mild intermittent asthma symptoms, naloxone products for opioid overdose emergencies, and enoxaparin sodium injection, an anticoagulant.

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