Amphastar Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMPH) Sees Large Drop in Short Interest

Amphastar Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMPH) was the target of a significant decline in short interest in the month of January. As of January 31st, there was short interest totalling 4,120,000 shares, a decline of 10.4% from the January 15th total of 4,600,000 shares. Approximately 11.5% of the shares of the company are short sold. Based on an average trading volume of 545,700 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 7.5 days.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have recently commented on AMPH. Wells Fargo & Company began coverage on shares of Amphastar Pharmaceuticals in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. They issued an “equal weight” rating and a $55.00 target price on the stock. Piper Sandler downgraded shares of Amphastar Pharmaceuticals from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their price target for the stock from $66.00 to $36.00 in a research report on Tuesday, February 4th. Finally, StockNews.com cut Amphastar Pharmaceuticals from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $50.33.

Amphastar Pharmaceuticals Trading Down 2.3 %

Shares of AMPH stock traded down $0.72 on Friday, reaching $31.02. The company had a trading volume of 550,006 shares, compared to its average volume of 480,935. The company has a current ratio of 3.43, a quick ratio of 2.61 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.82. The stock has a market cap of $1.49 billion, a PE ratio of 10.34, a PEG ratio of 2.07 and a beta of 0.81. The company has a 50-day moving average of $36.87 and a 200-day moving average of $43.33. Amphastar Pharmaceuticals has a 12 month low of $30.95 and a 12 month high of $56.38.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Amphastar Pharmaceuticals news, EVP Rong Zhou sold 7,000 shares of Amphastar Pharmaceuticals stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $44.42, for a total transaction of $310,940.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 118,469 shares in the company, valued at $5,262,392.98. The trade was a 5.58 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, Director Richard K. Prins sold 10,000 shares of Amphastar Pharmaceuticals stock in a transaction on Monday, December 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $43.77, for a total transaction of $437,700.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 30,471 shares in the company, valued at $1,333,715.67. This represents a 24.71 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 27.10% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Amphastar Pharmaceuticals

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Pacer Advisors Inc. increased its stake in Amphastar Pharmaceuticals by 51,977.4% during the 4th quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 1,350,368 shares of the company’s stock worth $50,139,000 after purchasing an additional 1,347,775 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its stake in Amphastar Pharmaceuticals by 9.6% during the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,198,590 shares of the company’s stock worth $44,503,000 after purchasing an additional 105,288 shares in the last quarter. Boston Trust Walden Corp boosted its position in Amphastar Pharmaceuticals by 81.4% during the 4th quarter. Boston Trust Walden Corp now owns 978,920 shares of the company’s stock worth $36,347,000 after acquiring an additional 439,281 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in Amphastar Pharmaceuticals by 1.5% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 920,363 shares of the company’s stock worth $44,674,000 after acquiring an additional 14,015 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp boosted its position in Amphastar Pharmaceuticals by 5.1% during the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 613,170 shares of the company’s stock worth $22,767,000 after acquiring an additional 29,808 shares during the last quarter. 65.09% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Amphastar Pharmaceuticals Company Profile

Amphastar Pharmaceuticals, Inc, a bio-pharmaceutical company, develops, manufactures, markets, and sells generic and proprietary injectable, inhalation, and intranasal products in the United States, China, and France. It offers BAQSIMI, a nasal spray for the treatment of severe hypoglycemia; Primatene Mist, an over-the-counter epinephrine inhalation product for the temporary relief of mild symptoms of intermittent asthma; Enoxaparin, to prevent and treat deep vein thrombosis; REXTOVY and Naloxone for opioid overdose; Glucagon for injection emergency kit; and Cortrosyn, for use as a diagnostic agent in the screening of patients with adrenocortical insufficiency.