Amphastar Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:AMPH) Share Price Breaks Above 50 Day Moving Average – Here’s What Happened

Amphastar Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMPH) shares passed above its fifty day moving average during trading on Monday. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $23.27 and traded as high as $26.86. Amphastar Pharmaceuticals shares last traded at $26.76, with a volume of 362,817 shares.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms recently issued reports on AMPH. Barclays upped their price target on Amphastar Pharmaceuticals from $20.00 to $23.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 18th. Zacks Research raised shares of Amphastar Pharmaceuticals from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 21st. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on shares of Amphastar Pharmaceuticals from $19.00 to $20.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, August 7th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “sell (d+)” rating on shares of Amphastar Pharmaceuticals in a research note on Friday, October 2nd. Finally, Piper Sandler dropped their target price on shares of Amphastar Pharmaceuticals from $21.00 to $20.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, August 7th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Reduce” and an average target price of $22.50.

Amphastar Pharmaceuticals Stock Performance

The company has a quick ratio of 1.71, a current ratio of 2.40 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $23.40 and a 200 day simple moving average of $21.13. The company has a market capitalization of $1.11 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.43, a P/E/G ratio of 5.16 and a beta of 0.90.

Amphastar Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:AMPH) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 6th. The company reported $0.91 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.62 by $0.29. The business had revenue of $183.90 million for 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%. As a group, analysts anticipate that Amphastar Pharmaceuticals, Inc. will post 2.46 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Amphastar Pharmaceuticals news, Director Richard Prins sold 7,973 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $20.30, for a total value of $161,851.90. Following the sale, the director directly owned 29,625 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $601,387.50. This trade represents a 21.21% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CFO William Peters sold 8,180 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, August 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $22.48, for a total value of $183,886.40. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer owned 172,846 shares in the company, valued at $3,885,578.08. The trade was a 4.52% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold a total of 33,479 shares of company stock worth $763,922 in the last three months. 29.60% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Amphastar Pharmaceuticals

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of AMPH. Quantbot Technologies LP bought a new stake in Amphastar Pharmaceuticals in the 2nd quarter valued at about $39,000. State of Wyoming acquired a new position in Amphastar Pharmaceuticals during the 2nd quarter valued at about $142,000. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board bought a new position in Amphastar Pharmaceuticals in the 2nd quarter worth about $232,000. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company bought a new position in Amphastar Pharmaceuticals in the 2nd quarter worth about $288,000. Finally, Louisiana State Employees Retirement System bought a new position in Amphastar Pharmaceuticals in the 1st quarter worth about $308,000. 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.