Amphastar Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMPH) Stock Has Average Target Price of $22.50

Shares of Amphastar Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMPH) have received a consensus recommendation of “Reduce” from the eight brokerages that are covering the company, Marketbeat.com reports. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation and six have issued a hold recommendation on the company. The average 1-year target price among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $22.50.

A number of analysts recently weighed in on AMPH shares. Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d+)” rating on shares of Amphastar Pharmaceuticals in a research report on Wednesday, July 8th. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Amphastar Pharmaceuticals from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Saturday. Barclays increased their target price on shares of Amphastar Pharmaceuticals from $20.00 to $23.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 18th. Zacks Research raised shares of Amphastar Pharmaceuticals from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 21st. Finally, 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.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, EVP Rong Zhou sold 10,000 shares of Amphastar Pharmaceuticals stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, September 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $23.94, for a total transaction 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 transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CFO William J. Peters sold 4,139 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $25.00, for a total transaction of $103,475.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer owned 168,707 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,217,675. This trade represents a 2.39% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 33,479 shares of company stock worth $763,922. 29.60% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Amphastar Pharmaceuticals

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of AMPH. TD Asset Management Inc increased its stake in Amphastar Pharmaceuticals by 1.6% during the 4th quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 1,963,052 shares of the company’s stock valued at $52,571,000 after purchasing an additional 31,160 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its holdings 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 valued at $39,726,000 after buying an additional 228,262 shares during the last quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC increased its position in shares of Amphastar Pharmaceuticals by 1.7% during the first 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 in the last quarter. Systematic Financial Management LP increased its position in shares of Amphastar Pharmaceuticals by 4.0% during the first quarter. Systematic Financial Management LP now owns 452,898 shares of the company’s stock valued at $8,872,000 after acquiring an additional 17,318 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Denali Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Amphastar Pharmaceuticals by 41.1% in the 2nd quarter. Denali Advisors LLC now owns 375,965 shares of the company’s stock worth $7,587,000 after acquiring 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 Stock Performance

Amphastar Pharmaceuticals stock opened at $25.43 on Wednesday. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $22.56 and its 200-day moving average price is $20.79. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79, a quick ratio of 1.71 and a current ratio of 2.40. The stock has a market cap of $1.08 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.05, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.88 and a beta of 0.90. Amphastar Pharmaceuticals has a fifty-two week low of $16.65 and a fifty-two week high of $29.52.

Amphastar Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:AMPH) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, August 6th. The company reported $0.91 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.62 by $0.29. Amphastar Pharmaceuticals had a net margin of 10.76% and a return on equity of 14.98%. The company had revenue of $183.90 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $179.92 million. On average, equities research analysts expect that Amphastar Pharmaceuticals will post 2.46 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.