Amgen Sees Unusually High Options Volume (NASDAQ:AMGN)

Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN) was the target of unusually large options trading activity on Thursday. Stock traders acquired 320,232 call options on the stock. This is an increase of approximately 2,412% compared to the typical daily volume of 12,750 call options.

Insider Transactions at Amgen

In other Amgen news, SVP Nancy A. Grygiel sold 3,139 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, November 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $337.26, for a total value of $1,058,659.14. Following the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 7,225 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,436,703.50. This trade represents a 30.29% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 0.76% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Amgen

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in Amgen by 1.8% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 54,838,826 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $17,949,296,000 after acquiring an additional 961,975 shares during the period. State Street Corp increased its holdings in shares of Amgen by 0.6% during the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 29,357,026 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $8,196,775,000 after purchasing an additional 177,035 shares during the period. Capital World Investors raised its position in shares of Amgen by 22.9% in the fourth quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 23,097,711 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $7,560,249,000 after buying an additional 4,302,237 shares in the last quarter. Capital International Investors raised its position in shares of Amgen by 1.5% in the third quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 19,192,995 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $5,414,296,000 after buying an additional 282,219 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Amgen by 7.8% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 14,303,294 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $4,665,822,000 after buying an additional 1,035,779 shares during the period. 76.50% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

AMGN has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. UBS Group lifted their target price on Amgen from $380.00 to $390.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, January 26th. Wall Street Zen cut Amgen from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, February 7th. Citigroup upped their price target on shares of Amgen from $315.00 to $345.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 4th. Oppenheimer set a $400.00 price objective on shares of Amgen and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 29th. Finally, Erste Group Bank upgraded Amgen from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, December 5th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have given a Buy rating, nine have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Amgen currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $354.04.

Amgen Stock Down 0.1%

Shares of NASDAQ:AMGN traded down $0.38 during midday trading on Thursday, hitting $366.20. The stock had a trading volume of 2,304,970 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,970,830. The company has a market cap of $197.19 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.73, a PEG ratio of 3.73 and a beta of 0.46. Amgen has a 12 month low of $261.43 and a 12 month high of $385.12. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $336.16 and its 200-day simple moving average is $312.77. The company has a quick ratio of 0.90, a current ratio of 1.14 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.78.

Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 3rd. The medical research company reported $5.29 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.76 by $0.53. The firm had revenue of $9.87 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $9.46 billion. Amgen had a net margin of 20.98% and a return on equity of 148.37%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 8.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $5.31 earnings per share. Amgen has set its FY 2026 guidance at 21.600-23.000 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Amgen will post 20.62 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Amgen Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 6th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 13th will be given a dividend of $2.52 per share. This represents a $10.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.8%. This is a boost from Amgen’s previous quarterly dividend of $2.38. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 13th. Amgen’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 66.90%.

About Amgen

Amgen Inc (NASDAQ: AMGN) is a global biotechnology company founded in 1980 and headquartered in Thousand Oaks, California. The company focuses on discovering, developing, manufacturing and delivering human therapeutics that address serious illnesses. Amgen’s work centers on biologic medicines derived from cellular and molecular biology, with an emphasis on translating advances in human genetics and protein science into therapies for patients.

Amgen’s commercial portfolio has historically included biologics used in oncology, supportive care, nephrology, bone health and cardiovascular disease.