Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) Upgraded at StockNews.com

StockNews.com upgraded shares of Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) from a buy rating to a strong-buy rating in a report published on Sunday.

Other equities analysts also recently issued reports about the stock. UBS Group reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $315.00 price target (down from $319.00) on shares of Amgen in a research note on Friday, May 2nd. Morgan Stanley reissued an “equal weight” rating on shares of Amgen in a research report on Friday, May 2nd. Bank of America boosted their target price on Amgen from $275.00 to $294.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 5th. Erste Group Bank downgraded shares of Amgen from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 8th. Finally, Piper Sandler dropped their price target on shares of Amgen from $329.00 to $328.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, May 16th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have assigned a hold rating, nine have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Amgen has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $309.22.

Amgen Trading Down 0.3%

Shares of AMGN stock opened at $275.01 on Friday. The company has a 50 day moving average of $289.51 and a 200-day moving average of $287.47. The company has a quick ratio of 0.95, a current ratio of 1.26 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 9.62. Amgen has a 12-month low of $253.30 and a 12-month high of $346.85. The firm has a market cap of $147.87 billion, a P/E ratio of 36.43, a PEG ratio of 2.63 and a beta of 0.51.

Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 1st. The medical research company reported $4.90 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.18 by $0.72. The business had revenue of $8.15 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.05 billion. Amgen had a net margin of 12.24% and a return on equity of 176.32%. Amgen’s revenue was up 9.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $3.96 EPS. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Amgen will post 20.62 earnings per share for the current year.

Amgen Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 6th. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 16th will be given a dividend of $2.38 per share. This represents a $9.52 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.46%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 16th. Amgen’s dividend payout ratio is 86.86%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, EVP David M. Reese sold 25,225 shares of Amgen stock in a transaction on Friday, February 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $304.44, for a total transaction of $7,679,499.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 36,922 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,240,533.68. The trade was a 40.59% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. 0.76% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Focus Partners Wealth boosted its position in Amgen by 17.9% during the first quarter. Focus Partners Wealth now owns 221,488 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $69,006,000 after purchasing an additional 33,626 shares in the last quarter. Integrity Alliance LLC. boosted its position in shares of Amgen by 66.2% during the 1st quarter. Integrity Alliance LLC. now owns 8,436 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $2,628,000 after acquiring an additional 3,359 shares during the last quarter. Ransom Advisory Ltd acquired a new position in shares of Amgen during the 1st quarter valued at about $580,000. Advisory Alpha LLC boosted its position in shares of Amgen by 12.2% during the 1st quarter. Advisory Alpha LLC now owns 919 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $286,000 after acquiring an additional 100 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bayforest Capital Ltd acquired a new position in shares of Amgen during the 1st quarter valued at about $41,000. 76.50% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About Amgen

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.