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 research note published on Saturday morning,Wall Street Zen reports.

Several other analysts also recently commented on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on shares of Amphastar Pharmaceuticals from $19.00 to $20.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, August 7th. Zacks Research upgraded shares of Amphastar Pharmaceuticals from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 21st. Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d+)” rating on shares of Amphastar Pharmaceuticals in a research note on Wednesday, July 8th. Bank of America reaffirmed an “underperform” rating and issued a $20.00 target price (down from $25.00) on shares of Amphastar Pharmaceuticals in a report on Monday, June 29th. Finally, Barclays increased their target price on shares of Amphastar Pharmaceuticals from $20.00 to $23.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 18th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Amphastar Pharmaceuticals currently has a consensus rating of “Reduce” and an average target price of $22.50.

Amphastar Pharmaceuticals Stock Down 0.2%

Shares of NASDAQ AMPH opened at $25.37 on Friday. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $22.69 and a 200 day moving average price of $20.84. The stock has a market cap of $1.08 billion, a PE ratio of 15.01, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.90 and a beta of 0.90. The company has a quick ratio of 1.71, a current ratio of 2.40 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79. Amphastar Pharmaceuticals has a 52-week low of $16.65 and a 52-week high of $29.52.

Amphastar Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:AMPH) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 6th. The company reported $0.91 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.62 by $0.29. The company had revenue of $183.90 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $179.92 million. Amphastar Pharmaceuticals had a return on equity of 14.98% and a net margin of 10.76%. Equities research analysts forecast that Amphastar Pharmaceuticals will post 2.46 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Richard K. Prins sold 7,973 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $20.30, for a total transaction of $161,851.90. Following the transaction, the director owned 29,625 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $601,387.50. This represents a 21.21% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, EVP Rong Zhou sold 10,000 shares of the 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 transaction, the executive vice president owned 169,203 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,050,719.82. The trade was a 5.58% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold 33,479 shares of company stock valued at $763,922 in the last three months. 29.60% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Amphastar Pharmaceuticals

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Bessemer Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Amphastar Pharmaceuticals by 1.0% during the first quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 122,046 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,391,000 after buying an additional 1,156 shares in the last quarter. Quantbot Technologies LP purchased a new position in Amphastar Pharmaceuticals in the second quarter valued at about $39,000. Vestcor Inc lifted its position in shares of Amphastar Pharmaceuticals by 74.6% during the 4th quarter. Vestcor Inc now owns 16,383 shares of the company’s stock valued at $439,000 after acquiring an additional 7,000 shares during the period. State of Wyoming acquired a new stake in shares of Amphastar Pharmaceuticals during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $142,000. Finally, Renaissance Technologies LLC lifted its position in shares of Amphastar Pharmaceuticals by 1.7% during the 1st quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 553,900 shares of the company’s stock valued at $10,851,000 after acquiring an additional 9,200 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 65.09% of the company’s stock.

Amphastar Pharmaceuticals Company Profile

Amphastar Pharmaceuticals, Inc is a biopharmaceutical company that develops, manufactures and markets injectable, inhaled and intranasal products. The company focuses on technically challenging medicines, including generic and proprietary products used in emergency care, respiratory treatment, diabetes management and other therapeutic areas.

Its marketed products include Primatene MIST, an over-the-counter epinephrine inhaler for temporary relief of mild, intermittent asthma symptoms; BAQSIMI, a ready-to-use nasal glucagon product for severe hypoglycemia; glucagon injection; Amphadase, a hyaluronidase product; and enoxaparin, an anticoagulant.