Advisory Alpha LLC Makes New Investment in Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN)

Advisory Alpha LLC purchased a new position in shares of Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund purchased 819 shares of the medical research company’s stock, valued at approximately $214,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Talbot Financial LLC lifted its position in Amgen by 5.6% during the 4th quarter. Talbot Financial LLC now owns 42,791 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $11,153,000 after buying an additional 2,274 shares in the last quarter. Swiss National Bank lifted its position in Amgen by 0.3% during the 3rd quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 1,592,233 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $513,033,000 after buying an additional 5,500 shares in the last quarter. Asset Advisors Investment Management LLC lifted its position in Amgen by 9.0% during the 3rd quarter. Asset Advisors Investment Management LLC now owns 35,934 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $11,578,000 after buying an additional 2,954 shares in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its position in Amgen by 6.0% during the 3rd 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 in the last quarter. Finally, First Horizon Advisors Inc. increased its stake in shares of Amgen by 3.2% during the 3rd quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 60,769 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $19,581,000 after purchasing an additional 1,872 shares during the last quarter. 76.50% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Piper Sandler lowered their price objective on shares of Amgen from $344.00 to $310.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, January 2nd. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price objective on shares of Amgen from $335.00 to $280.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, January 10th. Bank of America restated an “underperform” rating and set a $256.00 price objective on shares of Amgen in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. Cantor Fitzgerald restated an “overweight” rating and set a $405.00 price objective on shares of Amgen in a research note on Tuesday, October 22nd. Finally, William Blair reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Amgen in a research note on Tuesday, November 12th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have assigned a hold rating, thirteen have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $314.91.

Amgen Stock Performance

Shares of Amgen stock opened at $277.88 on Friday. The company has a 50 day moving average of $271.91 and a 200-day moving average of $306.43. Amgen Inc. has a 1-year low of $253.30 and a 1-year high of $346.85. 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 $149.37 billion, a PE ratio of 35.58, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.79 and a beta of 0.56.

Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The medical research company reported $5.58 earnings per share 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 during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.50 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $4.96 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 23.2% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Amgen Inc. will post 19.57 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Amgen Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 7th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 14th will be issued a dividend of $2.38 per share. This represents a $9.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.43%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 14th. This is an increase from Amgen’s previous quarterly dividend of $2.25. Amgen’s dividend 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.