Hofer & Associates. Inc Increases Holdings in Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN)

Hofer & Associates. Inc boosted its position in shares of Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN) by 6.0% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 6,869 shares of the medical research company’s stock after purchasing an additional 389 shares during the period. Amgen comprises 1.2% of Hofer & Associates. Inc’s holdings, making the stock its 23rd biggest holding. Hofer & Associates. Inc’s holdings in Amgen were worth $1,790,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Talbot Financial LLC grew its stake in Amgen by 5.6% in the 4th quarter. Talbot Financial LLC now owns 42,791 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $11,153,000 after acquiring an additional 2,274 shares in the last quarter. Swiss National Bank lifted its position in Amgen by 0.3% during the third quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 1,592,233 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $513,033,000 after acquiring an additional 5,500 shares during the last quarter. Asset Advisors Investment Management LLC lifted its position in Amgen by 9.0% during the third quarter. Asset Advisors Investment Management LLC now owns 35,934 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $11,578,000 after acquiring an additional 2,954 shares during the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Amgen by 6.0% in the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 635,172 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $204,659,000 after buying an additional 35,785 shares during the last quarter. Finally, First Horizon Advisors Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Amgen by 3.2% in the third quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 60,769 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $19,581,000 after buying an additional 1,872 shares during the last quarter. 76.50% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts recently issued reports on AMGN shares. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reduced their target price on shares of Amgen from $305.00 to $285.00 in a report on Wednesday, November 27th. UBS Group reduced their target price 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. Barclays raised their price target on shares of Amgen from $300.00 to $315.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, October 7th. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and set a $324.00 price target on shares of Amgen in a research report on Friday, January 24th. Finally, Truist Financial dropped their price target on shares of Amgen from $333.00 to $298.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have assigned a hold rating, thirteen have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Amgen has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $314.00.

Amgen Stock Performance

NASDAQ:AMGN opened at $285.42 on Friday. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $271.06 and its 200-day moving average price is $304.53. The company has a current ratio of 1.32, a quick ratio of 0.96 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 7.55. The company has a market cap of $153.42 billion, a P/E ratio of 36.55, a P/E/G ratio of 2.85 and a beta of 0.56. Amgen Inc. has a twelve month low of $253.30 and a twelve month high of $346.85.

Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The medical research company reported $5.58 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.11 by $0.47. Amgen had a net margin of 13.00% and a return on equity of 168.35%. The company had revenue of $8.50 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.50 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $4.96 earnings per share. Amgen’s quarterly revenue was up 23.2% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Amgen Inc. will post 19.56 earnings per share for the current fiscal 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 dividend of $2.38 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 14th. This is an increase from Amgen’s previous quarterly dividend of $2.25. This represents a $9.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.34%. Amgen’s payout ratio is 115.24%.

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.