Zacks Investment Management Acquires New Shares in Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN)

Zacks Investment Management bought a new position in Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN) during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor bought 98,619 shares of the medical research company’s stock, valued at approximately $31,776,000.

Other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Pathway Financial Advisers LLC lifted its position in Amgen by 33,125.4% in the 3rd quarter. Pathway Financial Advisers LLC now owns 4,460,181 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $1,437,115,000 after purchasing an additional 4,446,757 shares during the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC raised its stake in Amgen by 6,812.4% during the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 2,523,387 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $8,130,610,000 after acquiring an additional 2,486,882 shares in the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its position in Amgen by 561.5% during the 3rd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 1,539,733 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $496,117,000 after acquiring an additional 1,306,982 shares during the period. Granite Bay Wealth Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Amgen by 9,058.1% during the second quarter. Granite Bay Wealth Management LLC now owns 756,460 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $223,897,000 after purchasing an additional 748,200 shares during the period. Finally, Janus Henderson Group PLC raised its stake in shares of Amgen by 11.7% during the third quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 5,143,330 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $1,657,183,000 after purchasing an additional 538,545 shares in the last quarter. 76.50% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts recently commented on AMGN shares. StockNews.com lowered shares of Amgen from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 28th. TD Cowen boosted their price objective on Amgen from $381.00 to $383.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, October 21st. Robert W. Baird reaffirmed an “underperform” rating and issued a $215.00 price objective on shares of Amgen in a research note on Wednesday, September 25th. Wolfe Research assumed coverage on shares of Amgen in a research note on Friday, November 15th. They set a “peer perform” rating for the company. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group restated a “buy” rating and issued a $380.00 price target on shares of Amgen in a research report on Tuesday, November 12th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have issued a hold rating, twelve have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Amgen presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $323.05.

Amgen Stock Down 0.6 %

AMGN opened at $272.58 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $146.52 billion, a PE ratio of 34.90, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.08 and a beta of 0.55. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 7.55, a current ratio of 1.32 and a quick ratio of 0.96. Amgen Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $257.80 and a fifty-two week high of $346.85. The business has a 50-day moving average of $307.58 and a 200-day moving average of $316.10.

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

Amgen Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 9th. Shareholders of record on Monday, November 18th will be given a dividend of $2.25 per share. This represents a $9.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.30%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, November 18th. Amgen’s payout ratio is 115.24%.

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.