Signature Estate & Investment Advisors LLC Boosts Stock Holdings in Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN)

Signature Estate & Investment Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN) by 8.2% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 2,988 shares of the medical research company’s stock after buying an additional 226 shares during the period. Signature Estate & Investment Advisors LLC’s holdings in Amgen were worth $860,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in AMGN. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Amgen by 83,875.6% in the 4th quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 7,541,011 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $1,980,571,000 after acquiring an additional 7,532,031 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Amgen in the 4th quarter worth $1,351,778,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its holdings in Amgen by 158.0% in the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 2,950,013 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $774,791,000 after acquiring an additional 1,806,456 shares in the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC purchased a new stake in Amgen in the 4th quarter worth $4,589,900,000. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased its holdings in Amgen by 12.9% in the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 13,301,365 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $3,493,471,000 after acquiring an additional 1,523,665 shares in the last quarter. 76.50% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts recently commented on AMGN shares. BMO Capital Markets raised shares of Amgen from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $286.00 to $326.00 in a report on Tuesday, December 19th. Leerink Partnrs lowered shares of Amgen from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 7th. Daiwa Capital Markets raised shares of Amgen from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $264.00 to $320.00 in a report on Thursday, December 21st. Raymond James assumed coverage on shares of Amgen in a report on Thursday, March 28th. They set a “market perform” rating for the company. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $329.00 target price on shares of Amgen in a report on Wednesday, April 3rd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Amgen currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $295.30.

Amgen Stock Down 0.9 %

Shares of AMGN traded down $2.30 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $267.70. 184,539 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,870,808. The company has a market cap of $143.47 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.62, a P/E/G ratio of 2.52 and a beta of 0.58. Amgen Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $211.71 and a fifty-two week high of $329.72. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 10.14, a quick ratio of 1.13 and a current ratio of 1.65. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $281.88 and its 200-day moving average is $281.38.

Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 6th. The medical research company reported $4.71 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $4.66 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $8.20 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.13 billion. Amgen had a net margin of 23.83% and a return on equity of 154.27%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 19.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $4.09 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Amgen Inc. will post 19.49 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Amgen Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 7th. Investors of record on Friday, May 17th will be paid a dividend of $2.25 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 16th. This represents a $9.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.36%. Amgen’s payout ratio is 72.06%.

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.