Purkiss Capital Advisors LLC Takes Position in Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN)

Purkiss Capital Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN) in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 863 shares of the medical research company’s stock, valued at approximately $269,000.

Several other large investors have also modified their holdings of AMGN. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in Amgen by 2.9% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 12,475,032 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $3,245,881,000 after purchasing an additional 352,143 shares during the period. Capital International Investors boosted its stake 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 period. Capital World Investors boosted its stake in Amgen by 1,292.0% during the 4th 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. Northern Trust Corp boosted its stake in Amgen by 15.8% during the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 6,431,029 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $1,676,183,000 after purchasing an additional 875,254 shares during the period. Finally, UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC boosted its stake in Amgen by 15.4% during the 4th quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 5,128,328 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $1,336,647,000 after purchasing an additional 685,785 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 76.50% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

AMGN has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Bank of America increased their price target on shares of Amgen from $252.00 to $261.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 23rd. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Amgen from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Sunday, May 18th. Citigroup raised their target price on shares of Amgen from $300.00 to $305.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 22nd. William Blair restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Amgen in a research note on Tuesday, June 24th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $305.00 target price on shares of Amgen in a research note on Tuesday, June 24th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have given a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Amgen presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $307.27.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Amgen news, SVP Rachna Khosla sold 1,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, June 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $289.68, for a total transaction of $434,520.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president directly owned 8,162 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,364,368.16. This trade represents a 15.52% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Company insiders own 0.76% of the company’s stock.

Amgen Stock Performance

NASDAQ:AMGN opened at $306.58 on Monday. The company has a current ratio of 1.17, a quick ratio of 0.88 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.70. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $289.39 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $291.07. Amgen Inc. has a twelve month low of $253.30 and a twelve month high of $340.89. The company has a market capitalization of $164.85 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.97, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.65 and a beta of 0.49.

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