Jefferies Financial Group Reaffirms “Buy” Rating for Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN)

Jefferies Financial Group restated their buy rating on shares of Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) in a report issued on Tuesday,Benzinga reports. Jefferies Financial Group currently has a $380.00 price objective on the medical research company’s stock.

AMGN has been the topic of several other reports. Dbs Bank raised shares of Amgen to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, September 16th. Barclays raised their target price on shares of Amgen from $300.00 to $315.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, October 7th. Oppenheimer reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $380.00 price target on shares of Amgen in a report on Wednesday, August 7th. Sanford C. Bernstein started coverage on shares of Amgen in a report on Thursday, October 17th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $380.00 price target on the stock. Finally, Bank of America lifted their price target on shares of Amgen from $325.00 to $330.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 7th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have given a hold rating, eleven have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $333.57.

Amgen Price Performance

NASDAQ:AMGN opened at $283.61 on Tuesday. Amgen has a 52 week low of $260.52 and a 52 week high of $346.85. The firm has a market cap of $152.45 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.31, a P/E/G ratio of 2.69 and a beta of 0.60. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $321.59 and its 200 day simple moving average is $318.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 7.55, a quick ratio of 0.96 and a current ratio of 1.32.

Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The medical research company reported $5.58 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $5.11 by $0.47. Amgen had a net margin of 13.00% and a return on equity of 168.35%. The firm had revenue of $8.50 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.50 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $4.96 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 23.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Amgen will post 19.51 earnings per share for the current year.

Amgen Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 9th. Stockholders of record on Monday, November 18th will be paid a $2.25 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, November 18th. This represents a $9.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.17%. Amgen’s dividend payout ratio is currently 115.24%.

Institutional Trading of Amgen

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of AMGN. Sender Co & Partners Inc. increased its stake in Amgen by 74.3% during the 3rd quarter. Sender Co & Partners Inc. now owns 2,217 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $714,000 after purchasing an additional 945 shares in the last quarter. Frisch Financial Group Inc. increased its stake in Amgen by 8.1% during the 3rd quarter. Frisch Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,093 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $352,000 after purchasing an additional 82 shares in the last quarter. Prestige Wealth Management Group LLC increased its stake in Amgen by 2.8% during the 3rd quarter. Prestige Wealth Management Group LLC now owns 1,387 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $447,000 after purchasing an additional 38 shares in the last quarter. Brophy Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in Amgen during the 3rd quarter valued at $1,312,000. Finally, Conway Capital Management Inc. bought a new stake in Amgen during the 3rd quarter valued at $306,000. Institutional investors own 76.50% of the company’s stock.

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.