Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN) Shares Sold by Valley Brook Capital Group Inc.

Valley Brook Capital Group Inc. lowered its stake in shares of Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN) by 11.6% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 4,564 shares of the medical research company’s stock after selling 598 shares during the quarter. Valley Brook Capital Group Inc.’s holdings in Amgen were worth $1,190,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Capital Advisors Inc. OK grew its holdings in shares of Amgen by 13.1% during the 4th quarter. Capital Advisors Inc. OK now owns 2,404 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $627,000 after purchasing an additional 278 shares during the period. TCV Trust & Wealth Management Inc. boosted its holdings in Amgen by 0.8% in the 4th quarter. TCV Trust & Wealth Management Inc. now owns 57,270 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $14,927,000 after acquiring an additional 468 shares during the period. Leavell Investment Management Inc. boosted its holdings in Amgen by 0.8% in the 4th quarter. Leavell Investment Management Inc. now owns 17,892 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $4,663,000 after acquiring an additional 136 shares during the period. Fortress Financial Solutions LLC purchased a new position in Amgen in the 4th quarter worth approximately $281,000. Finally, Augustine Asset Management Inc. raised its position in shares of Amgen by 45.2% in the 4th quarter. Augustine Asset Management Inc. now owns 8,520 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $2,221,000 after purchasing an additional 2,653 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 76.50% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on AMGN shares. UBS Group cut their target price on Amgen from $335.00 to $326.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $324.00 target price on shares of Amgen in a research note on Friday, January 24th. Sanford C. Bernstein assumed coverage on Amgen in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $380.00 target price for the company. Truist Financial reduced their price objective on Amgen from $333.00 to $298.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. Finally, Citigroup reduced their price objective on Amgen from $310.00 to $295.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating, twelve have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $314.09.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Amgen news, EVP Jonathan P. Graham sold 25,045 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $293.12, for a total transaction of $7,341,190.40. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 28,987 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,496,669.44. This represents a 46.35 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, SVP Nancy A. Grygiel sold 1,589 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $304.47, for a total transaction of $483,802.83. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 7,210 shares in the company, valued at $2,195,228.70. The trade was a 18.06 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.69% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Amgen Price Performance

NASDAQ AMGN opened at $296.66 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $159.46 billion, a P/E ratio of 39.29, a P/E/G ratio of 3.01 and a beta of 0.56. Amgen Inc. has a 1 year low of $253.30 and a 1 year high of $346.85. The business’s fifty day moving average is $272.59 and its two-hundred day moving average is $302.50. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 9.62, a quick ratio of 0.96 and a current ratio of 1.26.

Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The medical research company reported $5.31 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.04 by $0.27. Amgen had a return on equity of 176.32% and a net margin of 12.24%. On average, research analysts forecast that Amgen Inc. will post 20.59 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Amgen Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 7th. Investors of record on Friday, February 14th will be issued a dividend of $2.38 per share. This represents a $9.52 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.21%. This is a positive change from Amgen’s previous quarterly dividend of $2.25. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 14th. Amgen’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 119.21%.

Amgen Profile

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.