Russell Investments Group Ltd. Sells 20,545 Shares of Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN)

Russell Investments Group Ltd. lowered its stake in shares of Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN) by 8.0% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 236,675 shares of the medical research company’s stock after selling 20,545 shares during the quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd.’s holdings in Amgen were worth $68,185,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in AMGN. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of Amgen by 1.7% during 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 acquiring an additional 193 shares in the last quarter. Diversified Trust Co raised its position in Amgen by 76.8% in the 4th 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 during the period. Nicolet Advisory Services LLC lifted 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 during the last quarter. Platform Technology Partners boosted its position in Amgen by 7.4% during the third quarter. Platform Technology Partners now owns 5,830 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $1,567,000 after buying an additional 402 shares during the period. Finally, Traynor Capital Management Inc. boosted its position in Amgen by 9.5% during the fourth quarter. Traynor Capital Management Inc. now owns 18,941 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $5,455,000 after buying an additional 1,650 shares during the period. 76.50% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on AMGN. Oppenheimer reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $350.00 target price on shares of Amgen in a research note on Thursday, February 1st. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their target price on shares of Amgen from $313.00 to $350.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 7th. Morgan Stanley lowered their price target on shares of Amgen from $281.00 to $278.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, February 7th. Truist Financial reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $320.00 price target on shares of Amgen in a report on Friday, April 12th. Finally, SVB Leerink downgraded shares of Amgen from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and lowered their price objective for the company from $324.00 to $318.00 in a research note on Wednesday, February 7th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Amgen presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $297.40.

Amgen Stock Performance

Shares of AMGN stock opened at $269.98 on Monday. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $275.10 and its 200-day moving average price is $281.51. The stock has a market cap of $144.81 billion, a PE ratio of 21.62, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.61 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 Inc. has a 12 month low of $211.71 and a 12 month high of $329.72.

Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 6th. The medical research company reported $4.71 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.13 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $4.09 earnings per share. Amgen’s quarterly revenue was up 19.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts expect that Amgen Inc. will post 19.43 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Amgen Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 7th. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 17th will be paid a dividend of $2.25 per share. This represents a $9.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.33%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 16th. Amgen’s payout ratio is 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.