Gratus Wealth Advisors LLC Grows Stock Holdings in Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN)

Gratus Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its position in Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN) by 36.8% during the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 1,171 shares of the medical research company’s stock after buying an additional 315 shares during the quarter. Gratus Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Amgen were worth $372,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of AMGN. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC acquired a new position in shares of Amgen during the second quarter worth $26,000. Hershey Financial Advisers LLC purchased a new position in Amgen during the 2nd quarter worth $30,000. nVerses Capital LLC acquired a new position in Amgen during the 2nd quarter valued at about $31,000. Bbjs Financial Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Amgen in the second quarter valued at about $33,000. Finally, FSA Wealth Management LLC boosted its holdings in Amgen by 182.0% in the first quarter. FSA Wealth Management LLC now owns 141 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $40,000 after acquiring an additional 91 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 76.50% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Robert W. Baird restated an “underperform” rating and set a $215.00 price objective on shares of Amgen in a report on Wednesday, September 25th. Bank of America upped their price target on shares of Amgen from $325.00 to $330.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on shares of Amgen from $310.00 to $303.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, July 11th. Oppenheimer restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $380.00 target price on shares of Amgen in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. Finally, Dbs Bank raised Amgen to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, September 16th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have given a hold rating, twelve have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $326.30.

Amgen Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ AMGN opened at $317.68 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 9.64, a quick ratio of 0.89 and a current ratio of 1.26. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $326.97 and a 200 day moving average of $309.76. The firm has a market cap of $170.41 billion, a PE ratio of 45.38, a PEG ratio of 2.98 and a beta of 0.61. Amgen Inc. has a one year low of $249.70 and a one year high of $346.85.

Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, August 6th. The medical research company reported $4.97 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.01 by ($0.04). Amgen had a return on equity of 161.72% and a net margin of 10.12%. The company had revenue of $8.39 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.35 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $5.00 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 20.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts predict that Amgen Inc. will post 19.49 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Amgen Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, August 6th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 16th were issued a $2.25 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 16th. This represents a $9.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.83%. Amgen’s payout ratio is currently 128.57%.

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.