Amphastar Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:AMPH) Upgraded at Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Amphastar Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:AMPH) from a buy rating to a strong-buy rating in a report published on Monday,Wall Street Zen reports.

AMPH has been the subject of several other reports. Piper Sandler reduced their target price on Amphastar Pharmaceuticals from $21.00 to $20.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Friday, August 7th. Barclays lifted their price target on Amphastar Pharmaceuticals from $20.00 to $23.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 18th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on Amphastar Pharmaceuticals from $20.00 to $25.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, November 6th. Weiss Ratings raised Amphastar Pharmaceuticals from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 4th. Finally, Zacks Research upgraded Amphastar Pharmaceuticals from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 21st. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Reduce” and a consensus target price of $23.33.

Amphastar Pharmaceuticals Trading Down 1.6%

Shares of AMPH stock opened at $28.60 on Monday. Amphastar Pharmaceuticals has a 52-week low of $16.65 and a 52-week high of $31.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.75, a quick ratio of 2.36 and a current ratio of 3.32. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $25.74 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $22.37. The company has a market capitalization of $1.22 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.84, a PEG ratio of 5.67 and a beta of 0.93.

Amphastar Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:AMPH) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, November 5th. The company reported $1.14 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.86 by $0.28. Amphastar Pharmaceuticals had a net margin of 13.27% and a return on equity of 15.31%. The firm had revenue of $207.61 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $197.52 million. Research analysts anticipate that Amphastar Pharmaceuticals will post 2.43 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Amphastar Pharmaceuticals news, CFO William J. Peters sold 12,631 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, November 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $28.99, for a total transaction of $366,172.69. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 167,076 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,843,533.24. This represents a 7.03% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale 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 10,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, September 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $23.94, for a total value of $239,400.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 169,203 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,050,719.82. This represents a 5.58% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold a total of 45,957 shares of company stock worth $1,232,836 in the last ninety days. 29.60% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Bank of New York Mellon Corp bought a new position in shares of Amphastar Pharmaceuticals during the 2nd quarter worth $4,689,000. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its stake in Amphastar Pharmaceuticals by 12.7% in the 1st quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,027,947 shares of the company’s stock valued at $39,726,000 after acquiring an additional 228,262 shares during the period. Empowered Funds LLC bought a new stake in Amphastar Pharmaceuticals in the 2nd quarter valued at about $3,286,000. Bank of America Corp DE bought a new stake in Amphastar Pharmaceuticals in the 2nd quarter valued at about $2,761,000. Finally, Denali Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Amphastar Pharmaceuticals by 41.1% during the second quarter. Denali Advisors LLC now owns 375,965 shares of the company’s stock valued at $7,587,000 after purchasing an additional 109,500 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 65.09% of the company’s stock.

Amphastar Pharmaceuticals Company Profile

Amphastar Pharmaceuticals is a biopharmaceutical company that develops, manufactures and markets generic and proprietary medicines, with a focus on products that can be technically challenging to produce. Its offerings include injectable, inhalation and intranasal medicines, as well as insulin active pharmaceutical ingredients. The company’s products include treatments and emergency medicines such as enoxaparin, glucagon and epinephrine products. Amphastar also markets BAQSIMI, a nasal powder used to treat severe low blood sugar, and Primatene MIST, an over-the-counter asthma inhaler.