Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN) Shares Sold by Blue Trust Inc.

Blue Trust Inc. trimmed its holdings in shares of Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN) by 35.2% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 2,386 shares of the medical research company’s stock after selling 1,296 shares during the quarter. Blue Trust Inc.’s holdings in Amgen were worth $622,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Capital Performance Advisors LLP purchased a new stake in shares of Amgen during the third quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Legacy Investment Solutions LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Amgen during the third quarter valued at approximately $29,000. Heck Capital Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Amgen during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $36,000. PrairieView Partners LLC raised its stake in shares of Amgen by 118.3% during the fourth quarter. PrairieView Partners LLC now owns 179 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $46,000 after purchasing an additional 97 shares during the period. Finally, Wingate Wealth Advisors Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Amgen during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $52,000. 76.50% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

AMGN has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Leerink Partners dropped their price objective on shares of Amgen from $349.00 to $302.00 in a research note on Wednesday, November 27th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Amgen from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. Wolfe Research initiated coverage on shares of Amgen in a research note on Friday, November 15th. They issued a “peer perform” rating for the company. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $324.00 price target on shares of Amgen in a research note on Friday, January 24th. Finally, Truist Financial dropped their price target on shares of Amgen from $333.00 to $298.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. 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 given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $314.09.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, SVP Nancy A. Grygiel sold 1,589 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $304.47, for a total value of $483,802.83. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 7,210 shares in the company, valued at $2,195,228.70. This represents a 18.06 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, EVP Jonathan P. Graham sold 25,045 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $293.12, for a total value of $7,341,190.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 28,987 shares in the company, valued at $8,496,669.44. This represents a 46.35 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 35,405 shares of company stock worth $10,410,596. Company insiders own 0.69% of the company’s stock.

Amgen Stock Performance

Shares of AMGN opened at $291.16 on Monday. Amgen Inc. has a 1 year low of $253.30 and a 1 year high of $346.85. The company has a market cap of $156.51 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 38.56, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.01 and a beta of 0.56. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 9.62, a quick ratio of 0.96 and a current ratio of 1.26. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $274.12 and a 200-day moving average of $301.63.

Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The medical research company reported $5.31 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $5.04 by $0.27. Amgen had a net margin of 12.24% and a return on equity of 176.32%. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Amgen Inc. will post 20.59 earnings per share for the current year.

Amgen Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 7th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 14th will be given a $2.38 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 14th. This is a boost from Amgen’s previous quarterly dividend of $2.25. This represents a $9.52 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.27%. Amgen’s payout ratio is 119.21%.

Amgen Company 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.