Bristol-Myers Squibb Q1 2026 earnings: newer drugs offset declines in older ones
BMS posted roughly flat quarterly revenue as newer medicines grew and older ones softened; the company reaffirmed its full-year 2026 outlook.
| Q1 2026 | Reported |
|---|---|
| EPS | $1.31 |
| Revenue | $11.49B |
Figures as reported by the company to the SEC for the quarter ended March 31, 2026. Analyst estimates are not part of a filing, so no comparison to expectations is shown.
Key takeaways
- Total revenue for the quarter was about flat compared with a year earlier, as growth in newer medicines helped offset declines in some older ones. The company’s “growth portfolio” — newer drugs including Reblozyl, Breyanzi, Camzyos, Opdualag, Qvantig and the newly launched Cobenfy — rose 9% to roughly $6.2 billion.
- Eliquis, BMS’s blood-thinner and still one of its biggest products, grew about 13% to roughly $4.1 billion. Management noted some of that increase reflects distributors stocking up ahead of a U.S. price change, an effect it expects to unwind in the current quarter.
- Opdivo, the company’s cancer immunotherapy, saw revenue decline around 8% to about $2.1 billion, which the company attributed largely to distributors drawing down inventory in the U.S. rather than a fall in underlying patient demand.
- Camzyos, a heart-disease drug, nearly doubled in sales to $314 million, while Cobenfy, a newer schizophrenia treatment, brought in $56 million and continues to build from a small base.
- Bristol-Myers Squibb reaffirmed its full-year 2026 targets: total revenue of roughly $46.0 billion to $47.5 billion and full-year adjusted earnings per share of $6.05 to $6.35, saying both are trending toward the higher end of those ranges.
- Trailing-twelve-month gross margin stood at about 71.7% and operating margin at about 25.5%, reflecting a business model where most revenue comes from patent-protected drugs that are costly to develop but comparatively cheap to manufacture once approved.
- Earnings per share over the trailing twelve months roughly doubled from a year earlier, a comparison that reflects the prior-year period including unusually large one-time charges (such as costs tied to acquisitions and restructuring) rather than a simple doubling of underlying profitability.
- Management pointed to several late-stage clinical trial results expected later in 2026 as near-term catalysts to watch, including milvexian (a blood-thinner) in atrial fibrillation and stroke prevention, Cobenfy in Alzheimer’s-related psychosis, admilparant in a lung disease called IPF, and further data on iberdomide.
Q1 2026 in context
| Metric | Mar 2026 | Mar 2025 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | $11.5B | $11.2B | +2.6% |
| Net income | $2.7B | $2.5B | +9.0% |
| Free cash flow | $757M | $1.7B | -55.3% |
| Diluted EPS | $1.31 | $1.20 | +9.2% |
| Gross margin | 70.2% | 72.9% | -2.7 pts |
| Net margin | 23.3% | 21.9% | +1.4 pts |
Figures for the quarter ended Mar 2026 and the quarter ended Mar 2025, as reported to the SEC.
How the stock took it
Bristol-Myers Squibb Co closed at $57.59 on Apr 29, 2026, the last session before the report, and at $58.22 on May 1, 2026, the first session after it — +1.1% across the report.
| Earlier report | Close before | Close after | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Oct 30, 2025 | $42.60 | $46.07 | +8.2% |
Closes from the market's daily record. Each figure spans the report date — from the last session that closed before it to the first that closed after — because a company may report before the open or after the close.
Sources: company report · earnings call