Fortitude Advisory Group L.L.C. Sells 328 Shares of Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN)

Fortitude Advisory Group L.L.C. lessened its holdings in Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN) by 20.3% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 1,287 shares of the medical research company’s stock after selling 328 shares during the period. Fortitude Advisory Group L.L.C.’s holdings in Amgen were worth $336,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Magnolia Capital Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Amgen during the 2nd quarter worth $486,000. NewEdge Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Amgen by 26.9% in the second quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 63,809 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $19,937,000 after buying an additional 13,542 shares in the last quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. raised its holdings in shares of Amgen by 3.8% in the 2nd quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 51,851 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $16,199,000 after purchasing an additional 1,920 shares during the period. Invst LLC bought a new position in shares of Amgen during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $1,005,000. Finally, Regal Investment Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Amgen by 1.5% in the second quarter. Regal Investment Advisors LLC now owns 4,171 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $1,303,000 after purchasing an additional 63 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 76.50% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have issued reports on AMGN. Barclays boosted their price objective 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. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft decreased their target price on shares of Amgen from $305.00 to $285.00 in a research note on Wednesday, November 27th. UBS Group dropped their price objective on shares of Amgen from $335.00 to $326.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Cantor Fitzgerald reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $405.00 price target on shares of Amgen in a research note on Tuesday, October 22nd. Finally, Bank of America reiterated an “underperform” rating and set a $256.00 price target on shares of Amgen in a report on Tuesday, December 10th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have assigned a hold rating, thirteen have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Amgen has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $314.65.

Amgen Trading Up 2.7 %

NASDAQ:AMGN opened at $282.95 on Tuesday. 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 1 year low of $253.30 and a 1 year high of $346.85. The company has a market cap of $152.09 billion, a P/E ratio of 36.23, a P/E/G ratio of 2.78 and a beta of 0.56. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $271.39 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $305.81.

Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The medical research company reported $5.58 earnings per share for the quarter, topping 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 analysts’ expectations of $8.50 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $4.96 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 23.2% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts expect that Amgen Inc. will post 19.56 EPS for the current year.

Amgen Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 7th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 14th will be paid a $2.38 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 14th. This represents a $9.52 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.36%. This is a positive change from Amgen’s previous quarterly dividend of $2.25. Amgen’s dividend payout ratio is currently 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.