NBW Capital LLC Cuts Position in Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN)

NBW Capital LLC lessened its holdings in Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN) by 20.6% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 854 shares of the medical research company’s stock after selling 222 shares during the quarter. NBW Capital LLC’s holdings in Amgen were worth $246,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in Amgen by 0.3% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 49,035,981 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $13,178,910,000 after purchasing an additional 165,636 shares during the period. Morgan Stanley grew its holdings in Amgen by 12.9% in the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 13,301,365 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $3,493,471,000 after purchasing an additional 1,523,665 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its holdings in Amgen by 1.1% in the first quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 8,819,690 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $2,132,778,000 after purchasing an additional 94,565 shares during the period. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Amgen by 83,875.6% in the fourth 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 purchasing an additional 7,532,031 shares during the period. Finally, Northern Trust Corp grew its holdings in Amgen by 3.8% in the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 6,977,625 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $1,875,306,000 after purchasing an additional 255,463 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 76.50% of the company’s stock.

Amgen Stock Performance

AMGN stock traded down $0.80 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $263.27. 802,916 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,834,382. Amgen Inc. has a 52-week low of $211.71 and a 52-week high of $329.72. The stock has a market cap of $141.09 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.14, a PEG ratio of 2.47 and a beta of 0.58. The company has a current ratio of 1.65, a quick ratio of 1.13 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 10.14. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $277.99 and its 200 day moving average is $281.37.

Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, February 6th. The medical research company reported $4.71 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.66 by $0.05. Amgen had a net margin of 23.83% and a return on equity of 154.27%. The business had revenue of $8.20 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.13 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $4.09 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 19.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts anticipate that Amgen Inc. will post 19.46 EPS for the current year.

Amgen Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 7th. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 17th will be paid a $2.25 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 16th. This represents a $9.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.42%. Amgen’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 72.06%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. SVB Leerink downgraded shares of Amgen from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and dropped their target price for the stock from $324.00 to $318.00 in a research note on Wednesday, February 7th. Daiwa Capital Markets upgraded 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 research note on Thursday, December 21st. Morgan Stanley dropped their target price on shares of Amgen from $281.00 to $278.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, February 7th. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $329.00 target price on shares of Amgen in a research note on Wednesday, April 3rd. Finally, UBS Group dropped their target price on shares of Amgen from $314.00 to $284.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Amgen has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $296.95.

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.