Lowe Wealth Advisors LLC Increases Stake in Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN)

Lowe Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN) by 51.6% in the first quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 338 shares of the medical research company’s stock after acquiring an additional 115 shares during the quarter. Lowe Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Amgen were worth $105,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Tallon Kerry Patrick purchased a new position in shares of Amgen in the fourth quarter valued at $270,000. Brighton Jones LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Amgen by 23.5% in the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 27,468 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $7,159,000 after buying an additional 5,226 shares during the period. Hantz Financial Services Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Amgen by 347.2% during the fourth quarter. Hantz Financial Services Inc. now owns 4,740 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $1,236,000 after purchasing an additional 3,680 shares during the last quarter. Strategic Blueprint LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Amgen by 2.2% in the 4th quarter. Strategic Blueprint LLC now owns 6,187 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $1,613,000 after purchasing an additional 136 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Allen Capital Group LLC boosted its position in Amgen by 14.6% during the 4th quarter. Allen Capital Group LLC now owns 1,565 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $408,000 after purchasing an additional 199 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 76.50% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

AMGN has been the topic of several analyst reports. Bank of America increased their target price on Amgen from $275.00 to $294.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 5th. UBS Group reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $315.00 target price (down previously from $319.00) on shares of Amgen in a research note on Friday, May 2nd. Mizuho upped their price objective on Amgen from $235.00 to $280.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 7th. Citigroup reaffirmed a “neutral” rating on shares of Amgen in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald started coverage on Amgen in a report on Tuesday, April 22nd. They set a “neutral” rating and a $305.00 target price on the stock. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have given a hold rating, nine have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $309.22.

Amgen Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ AMGN opened at $283.54 on Friday. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $283.86 and its 200-day simple moving average is $285.50. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 9.62, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a current ratio of 1.26. Amgen Inc. has a 52 week low of $253.30 and a 52 week high of $346.85. The firm has a market cap of $152.46 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.56, a P/E/G ratio of 2.63 and a beta of 0.51.

Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, May 1st. The medical research company reported $4.90 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.18 by $0.72. Amgen had a return on equity of 176.32% and a net margin of 12.24%. The firm had revenue of $8.15 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.05 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $3.96 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 9.4% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Amgen Inc. will post 20.62 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Amgen Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 6th. Investors of record on Friday, May 16th will be issued a dividend of $2.38 per share. This represents a $9.52 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.36%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, May 16th. Amgen’s dividend payout ratio is currently 86.86%.

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.