Flputnam Investment Management Co. Increases Position in Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN)

Flputnam Investment Management Co. raised its position in Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN) by 0.7% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 53,704 shares of the medical research company’s stock after purchasing an additional 397 shares during the quarter. Flputnam Investment Management Co.’s holdings in Amgen were worth $15,468,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Roundview Capital LLC increased its holdings in Amgen by 1.3% in the first quarter. Roundview Capital LLC now owns 8,383 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $2,027,000 after buying an additional 107 shares during the last quarter. Merit Financial Group LLC increased its holdings in Amgen by 39.2% in the first quarter. Merit Financial Group LLC now owns 2,297 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $555,000 after buying an additional 647 shares during the last quarter. Ergoteles LLC purchased a new position in Amgen in the first quarter valued at $219,000. First Western Trust Bank purchased a new position in Amgen in the first quarter valued at $334,000. Finally, Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. increased its holdings in Amgen by 2.1% in the first quarter. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. now owns 24,688 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $5,970,000 after buying an additional 513 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 76.50% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms recently commented on AMGN. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their target price on Amgen from $313.00 to $350.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 7th. Truist Financial restated a “buy” rating and issued a $320.00 price objective on shares of Amgen in a research note on Friday. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Amgen from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 28th. UBS Group cut their price target on shares of Amgen from $315.00 to $314.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Monday, January 29th. Finally, SVB Leerink cut shares of Amgen from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and cut their price target for the stock from $324.00 to $318.00 in a report on Wednesday, February 7th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Amgen presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $295.30.

Amgen Trading Down 0.7 %

Shares of AMGN traded down $1.77 during mid-day trading on Monday, reaching $265.51. The company had a trading volume of 1,731,820 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,883,530. The stock has a market cap of $142.29 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.40, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.53 and a beta of 0.58. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $280.76 and a 200-day simple moving average of $281.55. Amgen Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $211.71 and a fifty-two week high of $329.72. The company has a current ratio of 1.65, a quick ratio of 1.13 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 10.14.

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

Amgen Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 7th. Investors of record on Friday, May 17th will be issued a dividend of $2.25 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 16th. This represents a $9.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.39%. 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.