Kelman Lazarov Inc. Invests $209,000 in Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN)

Kelman Lazarov Inc. acquired a new position in Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm acquired 724 shares of the medical research company’s stock, valued at approximately $209,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. boosted its stake in Amgen by 1.7% in the third quarter. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. now owns 11,658 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $3,133,000 after purchasing an additional 193 shares in the last quarter. Diversified Trust Co boosted its stake in Amgen by 76.8% in the fourth quarter. Diversified Trust Co now owns 37,695 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $10,857,000 after purchasing an additional 16,376 shares in the last quarter. Nicolet Advisory Services LLC boosted its stake in Amgen by 4.4% in the third quarter. Nicolet Advisory Services LLC now owns 2,805 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $745,000 after purchasing an additional 117 shares in the last quarter. Platform Technology Partners boosted its stake in Amgen by 7.4% in the third quarter. Platform Technology Partners now owns 5,830 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $1,567,000 after purchasing an additional 402 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Traynor Capital Management Inc. boosted its stake in Amgen by 9.5% in the fourth quarter. Traynor Capital Management Inc. now owns 18,941 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $5,455,000 after purchasing an additional 1,650 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 76.50% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on AMGN shares. Leerink Partnrs downgraded Amgen from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 7th. TD Cowen dropped their price objective on Amgen from $370.00 to $360.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 17th. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $329.00 price objective on shares of Amgen in a report on Wednesday, April 3rd. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price target on Amgen from $313.00 to $350.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 7th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded Amgen from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, March 28th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $296.95.

Amgen Trading Up 1.3 %

Shares of NASDAQ:AMGN traded up $3.61 on Monday, reaching $272.54. 862,526 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,832,583. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $276.90 and its 200 day simple moving average is $281.51. Amgen Inc. has a 52 week low of $211.71 and a 52 week high of $329.72. The stock has a market capitalization of $146.19 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.53, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.50 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.

Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, February 6th. The medical research company reported $4.71 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.66 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $8.20 billion during 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 period in the prior year, the business posted $4.09 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Amgen Inc. will post 19.45 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Amgen Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 7th. Investors of record on Friday, May 17th will be given a dividend of $2.25 per share. This represents a $9.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.30%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 16th. Amgen’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 72.06%.

Amgen Company 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.