Amgen Inc. $AMGN Shares Sold by Covenant Asset Management LLC

Covenant Asset Management LLC reduced its stake in Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN) by 10.6% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 3,539 shares of the medical research company’s stock after selling 420 shares during the period. Covenant Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Amgen were worth $988,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Nuveen LLC acquired a new position in shares of Amgen during the 1st quarter valued at $688,868,000. Federated Hermes Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Amgen by 48.5% in the first quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 2,037,169 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $634,680,000 after buying an additional 665,555 shares during the period. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company boosted its stake in Amgen by 128.9% during the first quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 1,065,694 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $332,017,000 after buying an additional 600,096 shares in the last quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC bought a new position in Amgen during the second quarter valued at about $156,812,000. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. grew its holdings in Amgen by 1,505.3% during the second quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 518,604 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $144,799,000 after acquiring an additional 486,299 shares during the period. 76.50% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on AMGN shares. Bank of America upped their price target on shares of Amgen from $261.00 to $272.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a report on Friday. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Amgen from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, August 9th. Piper Sandler increased their target price on shares of Amgen from $328.00 to $342.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, August 25th. Citigroup raised their target price on shares of Amgen from $310.00 to $315.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 24th. Finally, Morgan Stanley upped their price target on Amgen from $330.00 to $333.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 6th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, twelve have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $309.70.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, SVP Nancy A. Grygiel sold 1,267 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $296.99, for a total value of $376,286.33. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 7,209 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,141,000.91. This represents a 14.95% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Insiders own 0.69% of the company’s stock.

Amgen Stock Performance

Amgen stock opened at $272.98 on Monday. Amgen Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $253.30 and a fifty-two week high of $335.88. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $288.86 and its 200-day simple moving average is $288.89. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 7.24, a current ratio of 1.31 and a quick ratio of 0.98. The company has a market cap of $146.96 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.32, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.37 and a beta of 0.49.

Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, August 5th. The medical research company reported $6.02 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.28 by $0.74. Amgen had a net margin of 18.96% and a return on equity of 174.71%. The firm had revenue of $9.18 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.86 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $4.97 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 9.4% on a year-over-year basis. Amgen has set its FY 2025 guidance at 20.200-21.300 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Amgen Inc. will post 20.62 EPS for the current year.

Amgen Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 12th. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 22nd were issued a dividend of $2.38 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, August 22nd. This represents a $9.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.5%. Amgen’s payout ratio is currently 77.84%.

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.