Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN) Shares Sold by Cullen Investment Group LTD.

Cullen Investment Group LTD. lessened its holdings in shares of Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN) by 0.6% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 8,582 shares of the medical research company’s stock after selling 48 shares during the period. Cullen Investment Group LTD.’s holdings in Amgen were worth $2,237,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. State Street Corp raised its stake in shares of Amgen by 1.2% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 29,317,018 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $9,446,236,000 after acquiring an additional 345,537 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Amgen by 0.9% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 12,122,889 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $3,893,771,000 after acquiring an additional 103,851 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake in Amgen by 2.4% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 10,532,629 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $3,393,718,000 after buying an additional 251,876 shares in the last quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC grew its stake in shares of Amgen by 11.7% in the 3rd quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 5,143,330 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $1,657,183,000 after purchasing an additional 538,545 shares during the period. Finally, Pathway Financial Advisers LLC raised its stake in Amgen by 33,125.4% during the third quarter. Pathway Financial Advisers LLC now owns 4,460,181 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $1,437,115,000 after acquiring an additional 4,446,757 shares in the last quarter. 76.50% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on AMGN. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lowered their target price on Amgen from $305.00 to $285.00 in a research note on Wednesday, November 27th. Citigroup lowered their target price on Amgen from $335.00 to $310.00 in a research report on Wednesday, November 27th. Barclays upped their target price on Amgen from $300.00 to $315.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, October 7th. Piper Sandler Companies reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $310.00 target price on shares of Amgen in a report on Thursday, January 2nd. Finally, William Blair reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Amgen in a report on Tuesday, November 12th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have given a hold rating, thirteen have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Amgen presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $314.91.

Amgen Stock Up 3.0 %

Amgen stock opened at $270.19 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 7.55, a quick ratio of 0.96 and a current ratio of 1.32. The company has a market capitalization of $145.24 billion, a PE ratio of 34.60, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.91 and a beta of 0.56. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $278.16 and a 200 day moving average price of $308.35. Amgen Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $253.30 and a fifty-two week high of $346.85.

Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The medical research company reported $5.58 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.11 by $0.47. Amgen had a return on equity of 168.35% and a net margin of 13.00%. The company had revenue of $8.50 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.50 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $4.96 EPS. Amgen’s revenue for the quarter was up 23.2% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts expect that Amgen Inc. will post 19.53 earnings per share for the current year.

Amgen Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 7th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 14th will be issued a $2.38 dividend. This is a positive change from Amgen’s previous quarterly dividend of $2.25. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 14th. This represents a $9.52 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.52%. Amgen’s dividend payout ratio is 121.90%.

About Amgen

Amgen Inc discovers, develops, manufactures, and delivers human therapeutics worldwide. The company's principal products include Enbrel to treat plaque psoriasis, rheumatoid arthritis, and psoriatic arthritis; Otezla for the treatment of adult patients with plaque psoriasis, psoriatic arthritis, and oral ulcers associated with Behçet's disease; Prolia to treat postmenopausal women with osteoporosis; XGEVA for skeletal-related events prevention; Repatha, which reduces the risks of myocardial infarction, stroke, and coronary revascularization; Nplate for the treatment of patients with immune thrombocytopenia; KYPROLIS to treat patients with relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma; Aranesp to treat a lower-than-normal number of red blood cells and anemia; EVENITY for the treatment of osteoporosis in postmenopausal for men and women; Vectibix to treat patients with wild-type RAS metastatic colorectal cancer; BLINCYTO for the treatment of patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia; TEPEZZA to treat thyroid eye disease; and KRYSTEXXA for the treatment of chronic refractory gout.