Amphastar Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:AMPH) Raised to Strong-Buy at Wall Street Zen

Amphastar Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:AMPH) was upgraded by equities researchers at Wall Street Zen from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report issued on Monday, Wall Street Zen reports.

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

Amphastar Pharmaceuticals Stock Performance

Shares of Amphastar Pharmaceuticals stock opened at $29.06 on Monday. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $25.63 and its 200 day simple moving average is $22.36. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.24 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.96, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.73 and a beta of 0.93. Amphastar Pharmaceuticals has a 12 month low of $16.65 and a 12 month high of $31.00. The company has a current ratio of 3.32, a quick ratio of 2.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.75.

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Amphastar Pharmaceuticals news, EVP Rong Zhou sold 10,000 shares of the business’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 sale, the executive vice president directly owned 169,203 shares in the company, valued at $4,050,719.82. The trade was a 5.58% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CFO William Peters sold 12,631 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, November 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $28.99, for a total value of $366,172.69. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 167,076 shares in the company, valued at $4,843,533.24. This represents a 7.03% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold 45,957 shares of company stock valued at $1,232,836 over the last three months. Company insiders own 29.60% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Amphastar Pharmaceuticals

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in AMPH. Bank of New York Mellon Corp bought a new position in Amphastar Pharmaceuticals during the second quarter worth about $4,689,000. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its stake in shares of Amphastar Pharmaceuticals by 12.7% in the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,027,947 shares of the company’s stock worth $39,726,000 after purchasing an additional 228,262 shares in the last quarter. Empowered Funds LLC bought a new stake in shares of Amphastar Pharmaceuticals in the second quarter valued at approximately $3,286,000. Bank of America Corp DE bought a new stake in shares of Amphastar Pharmaceuticals in the second quarter valued at approximately $2,761,000. Finally, Denali Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Amphastar Pharmaceuticals by 41.1% in 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 period. 65.09% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

About Amphastar Pharmaceuticals

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.