Hughes Financial Services LLC Purchases New Shares in Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN)

Hughes Financial Services LLC purchased a new stake in Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN) in the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor purchased 308 shares of the medical research company’s stock, valued at approximately $95,000.

Several other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Oxbow Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Amgen by 868.3% in the 1st quarter. Oxbow Advisors LLC now owns 10,932 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $3,406,000 after purchasing an additional 9,803 shares during the period. Schear Investment Advisers LLC raised its position in shares of Amgen by 3.2% in the first quarter. Schear Investment Advisers LLC now owns 5,646 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $1,759,000 after buying an additional 173 shares in the last quarter. TruNorth Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Amgen in the first quarter valued at approximately $78,000. Stephens Inc. AR raised its position in shares of Amgen by 50.3% in the first quarter. Stephens Inc. AR now owns 83,843 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $26,121,000 after buying an additional 28,064 shares in the last quarter. Finally, BankPlus Trust Department raised its position in shares of Amgen by 3.2% in the first quarter. BankPlus Trust Department now owns 8,238 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $2,567,000 after buying an additional 254 shares in the last quarter. 76.50% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on AMGN shares. Royal Bank Of Canada dropped their price target on shares of Amgen from $324.00 to $320.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, May 2nd. UBS Group reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $315.00 price target (down from $319.00) on shares of Amgen in a research report on Friday, May 2nd. Guggenheim started coverage on shares of Amgen in a research note on Tuesday, May 20th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $288.00 price objective on the stock. Cantor Fitzgerald reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $305.00 price objective on shares of Amgen in a research note on Tuesday, June 24th. Finally, Morgan Stanley reiterated an “equal weight” rating on shares of Amgen in a research note on Friday, May 2nd. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have given a hold rating, eight have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Amgen currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $307.82.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Amgen news, SVP Rachna Khosla sold 1,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, June 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $289.68, for a total value of $434,520.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president owned 8,162 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,364,368.16. This represents a 15.52% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 0.76% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Amgen Stock Down 1.7%

Shares of NASDAQ:AMGN opened at $295.27 on Friday. Amgen Inc. has a 1 year low of $253.30 and a 1 year high of $346.85. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.70, a current ratio of 1.17 and a quick ratio of 0.88. The business’s 50-day moving average is $283.56 and its 200-day moving average is $288.13. The company has a market capitalization of $158.77 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.94, a P/E/G ratio of 2.67 and a beta of 0.49.

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 firm had revenue of $8.15 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.05 billion. Amgen had a return on equity of 176.11% and a net margin of 17.39%. The company’s revenue was up 9.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $3.96 earnings per share. Equities research analysts predict that Amgen Inc. will post 20.62 earnings per share for the current year.

Amgen 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.