Bristol-Myers Squibb Company Stock Buy Recommendation Reiterated (BMY)

Editor's Note: TheStreet ratings do not represent the views of TheStreet's staff or its contributors. Ratings are established by computer based on metrics for performance (which includes growth, stock performance, efficiency and valuation) and risk (volatility and solvency). Companies with poor cash flow or high debt levels tend to earn lower ratings in our model.

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Bristol-Myers Squibb Company (NYSE:BMY) has been reiterated by TheStreet Ratings as a buy with a ratings score of B- . The company's strengths can be seen in multiple areas, such as its good cash flow from operations, expanding profit margins, largely solid financial position with reasonable debt levels by most measures and increase in stock price during the past year. We feel these strengths outweigh the fact that the company has had sub par growth in net income.

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Highlights from the ratings report include:

• Net operating cash flow has significantly increased by 169.96% to $4,584.00 million when compared to the same quarter last year. In addition, BRISTOL-MYERS SQUIBB CO has also vastly surpassed the industry average cash flow growth rate of -43.62%.
• The gross profit margin for BRISTOL-MYERS SQUIBB CO is currently very high, coming in at 81.30%. It has increased from the same quarter the previous year. Regardless of the strong results of the gross profit margin, the net profit margin of -19.00% is in-line with the industry average.
• The current debt-to-equity ratio, 0.53, is low and is below the industry average, implying that there has been successful management of debt levels. Despite the fact that BMY's debt-to-equity ratio is low, the quick ratio, which is currently 0.57, displays a potential problem in covering short-term cash needs.
• BMY, with its decline in revenue, underperformed when compared the industry average of 2.7%. Since the same quarter one year prior, revenues fell by 30.1%. Weakness in the company's revenue seems to have hurt the bottom line, decreasing earnings per share.
• Compared to where it was 12 months ago, the stock is up, but it has so far lagged the appreciation in the S&P 500. The stock's price rise over the last year has driven it to a level which is somewhat expensive compared to the rest of its industry. We feel, however, that other strengths this company displays justify these higher price levels.

Bristol-Myers Squibb Company, a biopharmaceutical company, engages in the discovery, development, licensing, manufacturing, marketing, distribution, and sale of biopharmaceutical products that help patients prevail over serious diseases worldwide. Bristol-Myers Squibb has a market cap of $55.5 billion and is part of the health care sector and drugs industry. The company has a P/E ratio of 30.3, above the S&P 500 P/E ratio of 17.7. Shares are down 4.6% year to date as of the close of trading on Tuesday.

You can view the full Bristol-Myers Squibb Ratings Report or get investment ideas from our investment research center.

--Written by a member of TheStreet Ratings Staff.

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