Salem Investment Counselors Inc. Purchases 678 Shares of Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN)

Salem Investment Counselors Inc. increased its position in shares of Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN) by 2.6% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 26,344 shares of the medical research company’s stock after acquiring an additional 678 shares during the period. Salem Investment Counselors Inc.’s holdings in Amgen were worth $8,207,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in AMGN. Centricity Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in Amgen during the 4th quarter worth approximately $25,000. Pinney & Scofield Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Amgen during the fourth quarter worth $26,000. Ritter Daniher Financial Advisory LLC DE grew its stake in shares of Amgen by 66.2% during the fourth quarter. Ritter Daniher Financial Advisory LLC DE now owns 128 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $33,000 after buying an additional 51 shares during the last quarter. Synergy Investment Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Amgen during the fourth quarter worth $34,000. Finally, Atala Financial Inc bought a new position in shares of Amgen in the 4th quarter valued at $34,000. 76.50% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on AMGN. Johnson Rice set a $294.00 price objective on Amgen in a research report on Wednesday, March 5th. Guggenheim initiated coverage on Amgen in a report on Tuesday, May 20th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $288.00 price target on the stock. Bank of America upped their price objective on Amgen from $275.00 to $294.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 5th. Cantor Fitzgerald began coverage on shares of Amgen in a report on Tuesday, April 22nd. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $305.00 price objective for the company. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reduced their target price on shares of Amgen from $324.00 to $320.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, May 2nd. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have given a hold rating, nine have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $309.22.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Amgen news, SVP Rachna Khosla sold 1,500 shares of Amgen stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, June 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $289.68, for a total transaction of $434,520.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 8,162 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,364,368.16. This trade represents a 15.52% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 0.76% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Amgen Trading Up 1.9%

NASDAQ:AMGN opened at $297.29 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 9.62, a current ratio of 1.26 and a quick ratio of 0.95. Amgen Inc. has a one year low of $253.30 and a one year high of $346.85. The company has a market cap of $159.85 billion, a PE ratio of 39.38, a PEG ratio of 2.63 and a beta of 0.51. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $281.03 and a 200-day moving average of $285.48.

Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 1st. The medical research company reported $4.90 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $4.18 by $0.72. The firm had revenue of $8.15 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.05 billion. Amgen had a return on equity of 176.32% and a net margin of 12.24%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 9.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $3.96 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Amgen Inc. will post 20.62 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.