Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN) Shares Sold by Farmers & Merchants Investments Inc.

Farmers & Merchants Investments Inc. reduced its holdings in shares of Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN) by 2.9% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 25,538 shares of the medical research company’s stock after selling 750 shares during the period. Farmers & Merchants Investments Inc.’s holdings in Amgen were worth $8,229,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in AMGN. Meyer Handelman Co. grew its position in shares of Amgen by 7.2% during the second quarter. Meyer Handelman Co. now owns 129,831 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $40,566,000 after buying an additional 8,700 shares in the last quarter. Oak Harvest Investment Services raised its holdings in shares of Amgen by 19.1% in the 1st quarter. Oak Harvest Investment Services now owns 38,067 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $10,823,000 after purchasing an additional 6,116 shares in the last quarter. EP Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Amgen by 11.0% during the 1st quarter. EP Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 23,769 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $6,758,000 after purchasing an additional 2,353 shares during the last quarter. BNP Paribas purchased a new position in Amgen in the first quarter valued at $4,772,000. Finally, Stanley Laman Group Ltd. purchased a new stake in Amgen during the 2nd quarter worth about $3,354,000. 76.50% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have issued reports on AMGN shares. Truist Financial lowered Amgen from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $320.00 to $333.00 in a report on Monday, October 14th. Sanford C. Bernstein assumed coverage on Amgen in a report on Thursday, October 17th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $380.00 price target for the company. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $362.00 price objective on shares of Amgen in a research note on Thursday, September 26th. Barclays upped their target price on shares of Amgen from $300.00 to $315.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, October 7th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $380.00 price target (up from $375.00) on shares of Amgen in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have issued a hold rating, twelve have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $332.55.

Amgen Stock Performance

NASDAQ:AMGN traded down $0.23 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, hitting $316.94. The stock had a trading volume of 158,277 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,413,864. Amgen Inc. has a 52 week low of $249.70 and a 52 week high of $346.85. The company has a current ratio of 1.26, a quick ratio of 0.89 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 9.64. The stock has a market capitalization of $170.02 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 45.31, a P/E/G ratio of 2.86 and a beta of 0.61. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $325.27 and a 200-day simple moving average of $314.44.

Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, August 6th. The medical research company reported $4.97 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.01 by ($0.04). The business had revenue of $8.39 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.35 billion. Amgen had a return on equity of 161.72% and a net margin of 10.12%. The company’s revenue was up 20.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $5.00 EPS. On average, research analysts expect that Amgen Inc. will post 19.49 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Amgen Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 9th. Stockholders of record on Monday, November 18th will be issued a $2.25 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, November 18th. This represents a $9.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.84%. Amgen’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 128.57%.

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.