Bristol-Myers Squibb stock price jumps 11% after earnings forecast increases

• Bristol-Myers Squibb reported strong earnings on Friday, raising its full-year profit forecast.
• The company beat second-quarter sales and profit estimates.
• Shares rose 11% to intraday highs, their highest since 2008.

Bristol-Myers Squibb shares rose 11% on Friday, their biggest intraday gain since 2008, after beating earnings estimates and raising full-year guidance.

The drugmaker’s improved sales result in the second quarter was largely due to its hit anticoagulant drug Eliquis.

Bristol Myers raised its adjusted earnings for the year to a range of 60 cents to 90 cents a share, up 20 cents from its last forecast. The company also reported $12.2 billion in quarterly revenue, up 9% year over year.

“Our goal is to continually improve the shape of the company over time. And the good news is we have a lot of strategic levers to leverage. We have a growing portfolio of young assets,” said company Chairman and CEO Christopher Boerner during Friday’s earnings conference call.

Of Bristol Myers’ existing drugs, Eliquis saw sales rise 7% year over year. Cancer drug Opdivo and blood cancer drug Revlimid also posted promising results and beat quarterly sales estimates.

However, the patents of these top three companies will expire within the next few years.

However, company executives are adamant that other drugs in Bristol Myers’ portfolio promise long-term gains and appear to be investing in more research and development to offset any losses. The company reiterated its plan to cut costs by $1.5 billion by 2025, which it announced during its latest quarterly earnings conference call.

“We plan to reinvest our savings into larger growth opportunities to increase patient impact and accelerate sales growth in the second half of the decade,” executive vice president and chief financial officer David Elkins said on the call.

Boerner said the company’s priority going forward will be paying down debt and fulfilling existing deals, including bringing to market its schizophrenia drug KarXT, which the company expects to receive FDA approval in September.

“We saw good growth in the first half (of the decade) and we expect good growth in the second half,” Boerner said.

Bristol Myers is the latest of several pharmaceutical companies to raise their profit forecasts this week.

AstraZeneca, Roche, Sanofi and AbbVie all raised their profit forecasts for the year during earnings reports on Thursday. AbbVie, known for its blockbuster drug Humira, saw its shares surge Thursday after recent earnings showed the rest of its drug portfolio was more profitable than expected after Humira’s market exclusivity expired in 2023.