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

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

Other research analysts have also recently issued research reports about the stock. Zacks Research upgraded shares of Amphastar Pharmaceuticals from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 21st. Piper Sandler decreased their price target on shares of Amphastar Pharmaceuticals from $21.00 to $20.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, August 7th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on shares of Amphastar Pharmaceuticals from $19.00 to $20.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, August 7th. Barclays boosted their price target 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. Finally, Weiss Ratings raised Amphastar Pharmaceuticals from a “sell (d+)” rating to a “hold (c-)” rating in a research report on Friday, October 16th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Reduce” and a consensus target price of $22.50.

Amphastar Pharmaceuticals Price Performance

AMPH opened at $25.47 on Friday. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $24.35 and its 200 day moving average price is $22.34. Amphastar Pharmaceuticals has a 12-month low of $16.65 and a 12-month high of $29.52. The firm has a market cap of $1.08 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.07, a PEG ratio of 4.84 and a beta of 0.90. The company has a current ratio of 2.40, a quick ratio of 1.71 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79.

Amphastar Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:AMPH) last released its earnings results on Thursday, August 6th. The company reported $0.91 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.62 by $0.29. The company had revenue of $183.90 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $179.92 million. Amphastar Pharmaceuticals had a return on equity of 14.98% and a net margin of 10.76%. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Amphastar Pharmaceuticals will post 2.46 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Amphastar Pharmaceuticals

In other Amphastar Pharmaceuticals news, CFO William Peters sold 4,139 shares of Amphastar Pharmaceuticals 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 directly owned 168,707 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,217,675. The trade was a 2.39% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, EVP Rong Zhou sold 10,000 shares of Amphastar Pharmaceuticals stock in a transaction dated 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $4,050,719.82. This trade represents a 5.58% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold a total of 33,479 shares of company stock worth $763,922 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 29.60% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Amphastar Pharmaceuticals

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in AMPH. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its holdings in 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 purchasing an additional 228,262 shares in the last quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Amphastar Pharmaceuticals by 1.7% in the 1st quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 553,900 shares of the company’s stock valued at $10,851,000 after buying an additional 9,200 shares in the last quarter. Systematic Financial Management LP boosted its holdings in shares of Amphastar Pharmaceuticals by 4.0% in the 1st quarter. Systematic Financial Management LP now owns 452,898 shares of the company’s stock valued at $8,872,000 after buying an additional 17,318 shares in the last quarter. Denali Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Amphastar Pharmaceuticals by 41.1% in the 2nd quarter. Denali Advisors LLC now owns 375,965 shares of the company’s stock valued at $7,587,000 after buying an additional 109,500 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Pacer Advisors Inc. raised its stake in Amphastar Pharmaceuticals by 47.1% during the 1st quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 261,483 shares of the company’s stock worth $5,122,000 after acquiring an additional 83,739 shares in the last quarter. 65.09% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Amphastar Pharmaceuticals Company Profile

Amphastar Pharmaceuticals, Inc is a biopharmaceutical company that develops, manufactures and markets injectable, inhalation and intranasal products. The company focuses on technically challenging medicines, including complex generics, proprietary products and products based on its drug-delivery technologies.

Its product portfolio includes Primatene MIST, an over-the-counter epinephrine inhaler; Baqsimi, a nasal glucagon product used to treat severe hypoglycemia; and injectable medicines such as glucagon, naloxone, enoxaparin and hyaluronidase.