Empower Advisory Group LLC Buys 2,682 Shares of Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN)

Empower Advisory Group LLC increased its stake in Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN) by 0.6% during the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 420,345 shares of the medical research company’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,682 shares during the quarter. Empower Advisory Group LLC’s holdings in Amgen were worth $135,439,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Capital Performance Advisors LLP purchased a new position in Amgen in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Hershey Financial Advisers LLC purchased a new position in shares of Amgen during the 2nd quarter valued at $30,000. nVerses Capital LLC purchased a new position in shares of Amgen during the 2nd quarter valued at $31,000. Bbjs Financial Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Amgen during the 2nd quarter valued at $33,000. Finally, Matrix Trust Co bought a new stake in shares of Amgen during the 3rd quarter worth $36,000. 76.50% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on AMGN shares. Robert W. Baird reaffirmed an “underperform” rating and set a $215.00 price objective on shares of Amgen in a report on Wednesday, September 25th. William Blair reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Amgen in a research note on Tuesday. Dbs Bank raised shares of Amgen to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, September 16th. StockNews.com raised shares of Amgen from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Finally, Barclays upped their price objective on shares of Amgen from $300.00 to $315.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, October 7th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have assigned a hold rating, eleven have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Amgen currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $333.50.

Amgen Trading Down 7.1 %

NASDAQ:AMGN opened at $298.84 on Wednesday. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $323.37 and its 200-day moving average price is $318.07. Amgen Inc. has a 52 week low of $260.52 and a 52 week high of $346.85. The company has a quick ratio of 0.96, a current ratio of 1.32 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 7.55. The stock has a market cap of $160.64 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 38.26, a PEG ratio of 2.90 and a beta of 0.60.

Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The medical research company reported $5.58 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.11 by $0.47. Amgen had a net margin of 13.00% and a return on equity of 168.35%. The firm had revenue of $8.50 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.50 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $4.96 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 23.2% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Amgen Inc. will post 19.51 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Amgen Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 9th. Investors of record on Monday, November 18th will be given a dividend of $2.25 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, November 18th. This represents a $9.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.01%. Amgen’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 115.24%.

Amgen 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.