Merit Financial Group LLC Cuts Position in Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN)

Merit Financial Group LLC decreased its position in Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN) by 11.6% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 9,201 shares of the medical research company’s stock after selling 1,211 shares during the quarter. Merit Financial Group LLC’s holdings in Amgen were worth $2,650,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in AMGN. International Assets Investment Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Amgen during the fourth quarter worth $4,589,900,000. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its position in shares of Amgen by 486.6% during the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 899,232 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $258,997,000 after acquiring an additional 745,929 shares during the period. abrdn plc increased its position in shares of Amgen by 150.4% during the fourth quarter. abrdn plc now owns 1,043,609 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $300,580,000 after acquiring an additional 626,810 shares during the period. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of Amgen by 111.9% during the fourth quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC now owns 989,061 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $284,869,000 after acquiring an additional 522,367 shares during the period. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada increased its position in shares of Amgen by 11.4% during the third quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 5,079,677 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $1,365,213,000 after acquiring an additional 518,689 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 76.50% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

AMGN has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their target price on shares of Amgen from $313.00 to $350.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 7th. SVB Leerink downgraded shares of Amgen from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and lowered their target price for the stock from $324.00 to $318.00 in a research note on Wednesday, February 7th. Barclays upgraded shares of Amgen from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $230.00 to $300.00 in a research note on Friday. BMO Capital Markets boosted their target price on shares of Amgen from $336.00 to $355.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday. Finally, Oppenheimer restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $350.00 price objective on shares of Amgen in a research note on Thursday, February 1st. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Amgen currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $305.05.

Amgen Stock Up 11.8 %

AMGN traded up $32.90 on Friday, reaching $311.29. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 9,644,682 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,279,398. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 10.14, a current ratio of 1.65 and a quick ratio of 1.13. Amgen Inc. has a 1 year low of $211.71 and a 1 year high of $329.72. The business’s 50 day moving average is $274.51 and its 200 day moving average is $281.33. The stock has a market cap of $166.97 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 44.47, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.69 and a beta of 0.60.

Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 2nd. The medical research company reported $3.96 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.76 by $0.20. The business had revenue of $7.45 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $7.45 billion. Amgen had a net margin of 12.74% and a return on equity of 145.62%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 22.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $3.98 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts forecast that Amgen Inc. will post 19.43 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Amgen Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 7th. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 17th will be issued a $2.25 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 16th. This represents a $9.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.89%. Amgen’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 128.57%.

Insider Activity at Amgen

In other Amgen news, SVP Nancy A. Grygiel sold 2,117 shares of Amgen stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $313.09, for a total value of $662,811.53. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 9,883 shares in the company, valued at $3,094,268.47. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 0.46% of the company’s stock.

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.