Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC Increases Stock Position in Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN)

Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN) by 3.6% in the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 149,061 shares of the medical research company’s stock after buying an additional 5,225 shares during the quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC’s holdings in Amgen were worth $46,440,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Amgen by 0.6% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 52,721,795 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $13,741,409,000 after purchasing an additional 339,522 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Amgen by 25.4% in the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 13,205,604 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $3,441,909,000 after purchasing an additional 2,672,975 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Amgen by 2.9% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 12,475,032 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $3,245,881,000 after purchasing an additional 352,143 shares during the period. Capital International Investors lifted its position in shares of Amgen by 40.1% in the 4th quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 12,212,065 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $3,182,843,000 after purchasing an additional 3,495,503 shares during the period. Finally, Capital World Investors lifted its position in shares of Amgen by 1,292.0% in the 4th quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 6,495,710 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $1,693,042,000 after purchasing an additional 6,029,058 shares during the period. 76.50% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

AMGN has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an “equal weight” rating on shares of Amgen in a research report on Friday, May 2nd. Bank of America raised their target price on shares of Amgen from $275.00 to $294.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 5th. Mizuho increased their price target on shares of Amgen from $235.00 to $280.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 7th. Johnson Rice set a $294.00 price target on shares of Amgen in a research note on Wednesday, March 5th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada decreased their price target on shares of Amgen from $324.00 to $320.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, May 2nd. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have given a hold rating, nine have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Amgen currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $309.22.

Insider Buying and Selling at Amgen

In other Amgen news, SVP Rachna Khosla sold 1,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, June 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $289.68, for a total transaction of $434,520.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 8,162 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,364,368.16. This represents a 15.52% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. 0.76% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Amgen Stock Performance

Shares of AMGN stock opened at $280.35 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.88, a current ratio of 1.17 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.70. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $280.99 and a 200-day moving average price of $286.00. Amgen Inc. has a 52 week low of $253.30 and a 52 week high of $346.85. The firm has a market capitalization of $150.75 billion, a PE ratio of 25.58, a P/E/G ratio of 2.51 and a beta of 0.51.

Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 1st. The medical research company reported $4.90 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.18 by $0.72. Amgen had a net margin of 17.39% and a return on equity of 176.11%. The firm had revenue of $8.15 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.05 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $3.96 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly 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 year.

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.