Merrion Investment Management Co LLC Decreases Stock Position in Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN)

Merrion Investment Management Co LLC reduced its stake in Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN) by 4.8% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 2,468 shares of the medical research company’s stock after selling 125 shares during the quarter. Merrion Investment Management Co LLC’s holdings in Amgen were worth $769,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Capital World Investors raised its stake in Amgen by 1,292.0% during the fourth quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 6,495,710 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $1,693,042,000 after purchasing an additional 6,029,058 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Amgen during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $1,541,991,000. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its stake in Amgen by 43,573.5% during the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 3,661,589 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $1,140,768,000 after buying an additional 3,653,205 shares during the period. Capital International Investors increased its holdings in Amgen by 40.1% during the 4th quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 12,212,065 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $3,182,843,000 after purchasing an additional 3,495,503 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Amgen by 25.4% in the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 13,205,604 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $3,441,909,000 after buying an additional 2,672,975 shares during the last quarter. 76.50% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have weighed in on AMGN. Royal Bank Of Canada lowered their target price on shares of Amgen from $324.00 to $320.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, May 2nd. Erste Group Bank cut Amgen from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 8th. Guggenheim assumed coverage on shares of Amgen in a report on Tuesday, May 20th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $288.00 price objective for the company. Bank of America raised their target price on Amgen from $275.00 to $294.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 5th. Finally, Johnson Rice set a $294.00 target price on shares of Amgen in a report on Wednesday, March 5th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have given a hold rating, nine have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Amgen currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $309.22.

Insider Activity

In related 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 sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 8,162 shares in the company, 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 at this hyperlink. 0.76% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Amgen Stock Performance

NASDAQ AMGN opened at $289.63 on Thursday. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $281.59 and a 200-day moving average of $285.81. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.70, a quick ratio of 0.88 and a current ratio of 1.17. The stock has a market cap of $155.74 billion, a PE ratio of 26.43, a P/E/G ratio of 2.62 and a beta of 0.51. Amgen Inc. has a 52-week low of $253.30 and a 52-week high of $346.85.

Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 1st. The medical research company reported $4.90 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.18 by $0.72. The business had revenue of $8.15 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.05 billion. Amgen had a return on equity of 176.11% and a net margin of 17.39%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $3.96 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Amgen Inc. will post 20.62 EPS for the current 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.