Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) Cut to “Buy” at StockNews.com

StockNews.com lowered shares of Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) from a strong-buy rating to a buy rating in a research report sent to investors on Wednesday morning.

Other equities research analysts have also recently issued reports about the stock. Redburn Partners cut their price objective on shares of Amgen from $200.00 to $195.00 in a research report on Wednesday, November 27th. Dbs Bank raised shares of Amgen to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, September 16th. Wolfe Research initiated coverage on shares of Amgen in a research report on Friday, November 15th. They set a “peer perform” rating on the stock. UBS Group reduced their target price on Amgen from $335.00 to $326.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein started coverage on Amgen in a report on Thursday, October 17th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $380.00 price target for the company. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have given a hold rating, twelve have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $319.68.

Amgen Stock Performance

NASDAQ:AMGN opened at $263.38 on Wednesday. Amgen has a twelve month low of $253.30 and a twelve month high of $346.85. The company has a market cap of $141.58 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.72, a P/E/G ratio of 2.91 and a beta of 0.55. The company has a current ratio of 1.32, a quick ratio of 0.96 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 7.55. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $296.20 and its 200-day moving average price is $313.27.

Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The medical research company reported $5.58 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.11 by $0.47. The business had revenue of $8.50 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.50 billion. Amgen had a net margin of 13.00% and a return on equity of 168.35%. The business’s revenue was up 23.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company posted $4.96 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Amgen will post 19.53 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Amgen Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 7th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 14th will be given a dividend of $2.38 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 14th. This is an increase from Amgen’s previous quarterly dividend of $2.25. This represents a $9.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.61%. Amgen’s payout ratio is currently 121.90%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Amgen

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Lantz Financial LLC boosted its holdings in Amgen by 5.1% in the second quarter. Lantz Financial LLC now owns 1,779 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $556,000 after purchasing an additional 87 shares in the last quarter. Griffin Asset Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Amgen by 5.0% in the 2nd quarter. Griffin Asset Management Inc. now owns 957 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $299,000 after buying an additional 46 shares in the last quarter. 1620 Investment Advisors Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Amgen in the 2nd quarter valued at $107,000. Hennessy Advisors Inc. raised its stake in Amgen by 0.8% during the 2nd quarter. Hennessy Advisors Inc. now owns 13,300 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $4,156,000 after acquiring an additional 100 shares in the last quarter. Finally, JB Capital LLC lifted its position in Amgen by 1,212.2% in the second quarter. JB Capital LLC now owns 10,576 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $3,305,000 after acquiring an additional 9,770 shares during the last quarter. 76.50% of the stock is 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.