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Pharmaceutical firm Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE: BMY) announced that strong sales of Plavix and Abilify (an anti-clotting and psychiatric drug, respectively) helped boost the company's quarterly revenue. The boost wasn't enough though, as higher taxes and a litigation charge weighed on the company's profit, pulling it 3.5% lower. BMY's quarterly earnings totaled 32 cents per share, a penny worse than a year ago. However, earnings excluding items would have been 48 cents per share (simple math tells me that the charges were 16 cents per share). These charges included a litigation charge that helped settle a shareholder lawsuit. Quarterly revenue checked in at $5.02 billion, which was 3% higher than the first quarter of 2007. Excluding the effects of the strong dollar, BMY's sales would have increased 8%. Expectations called for higher sales of $5.13 billion, but lower per-share earnings of 47 cents per share.
BMY could see a mixed trading day, depending on how the news is interpreted. Nevertheless, the equity's long-term trend is lower thanks to the equity's 10- and 20-month moving averages. The last time BMY managed to close a month atop both of these trendlines was December 2007.
Will a positive reaction to this morning's earnings report help push the stock through the overhead resistance? It is entirely possible, as BMY has spent the better part of the past four months testing this resistance. The more resistance is tested, the weaker it becomes -- so these trendlines could give way.
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