Could You Have Seen The Run In Bristol Myers Squibb Stock Coming?

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Bristol Myers Squibb (BMY) stock returned 53.2% in the twelve months to October 30, 2026, compared with 11.3% for the S&P 500. Revenue growth picked up in 2026. Most sales now come from the growth portfolio, which the company reports separately from older drugs like Eliquis. Yet the stock had fallen 12.8% in the six months before the run began. What was management saying about the growth portfolio before late October 2025?

Management Flagged Growth Portfolio Sales In Early 2025

During its February 6, 2025 call to discuss the fourth quarter of 2024, management said the growth portfolio had grown revenue at double digits. On the April 24, 2025 call, the company said the growth portfolio had “again delivered double-digit sales growth” in the first quarter of 2025.

Total revenue did not show it. Sales in the quarter ended March 2025 fell 5.6% from a year earlier, and sales in the quarter ended June 2025 rose just 0.6%. Operating margin did change: it reached 30.8% in the quarter ended June 2025, against 13.9% a year earlier. On the February call, management had also said it had identified an additional $2 billion in savings.

Read at the time, those signs were mixed. A shareholder who listened to the calls and read the June 2025 quarter’s results saw double-digit growth portfolio sales and a higher margin, while someone looking only at total sales saw a company going nowhere. The signs look clearer now than they did then.

How Big Bristol Myers Squibb’s Growth Drugs Became

By the quarter ended September 2026, growth portfolio revenue reached $7.7 billion, up 12% from a year earlier. That accounted for about 59% of the company’s $13.1 billion in total revenue. In the same quarter, Breyanzi revenue rose 48% to $526 million.

The whole company was growing again too. Total revenue growth rose in each quarter of 2026, climbing from 2.6% in the quarter ended March to 6.9% in the quarter ended September. Operating margin in the September quarter was 33.7%, against 29.8% a year earlier. The business shareholders owned in October 2026 was selling more and keeping more of each dollar as operating profit.

Bristol was not alone in rising. Over the same twelve months, Merck stock returned 77.8%, about 25 percentage points more than Bristol. Johnson & Johnson stock returned 49.7%, and Pfizer stock returned 34.5%.

Is Bristol Myers Squibb’s Growth Portfolio Still Growing?

Yes, on the latest figures. On the October 29, 2026 call, management said eight growth portfolio medicines were each selling at a rate of more than $1 billion a year, based on third-quarter sales. The growth portfolio is still growing at double digits, the pace management described in early 2025.

Bristol’s older drugs face pressure. Generic competition cut sales of most of them, so older-drug revenue rose just 1% in the latest quarter even with Eliquis growing. Eliquis was the company’s biggest drug in 2025, with $14.4 billion in revenue. In the September 2026 quarter, Eliquis revenue still rose 26% to $4.7 billion. Management said Eliquis sales in the fourth quarter of 2026 will be hit by its upcoming loss of exclusivity in Europe, partly offset by growth in the U.S. The company expects a $1.5 billion to $2 billion step down in Eliquis revenue in 2027.

Growth portfolio revenue, set against the expected fall in Eliquis sales, is the figure to watch when Bristol Myers Squibb reports in February 2027.

Does This Mean You Should Act On BMY?

Our purpose is to inform you with unique data so you make the right investment decisions. That said, betting on a single stock is always risky, no matter which direction you choose.

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