HF Advisory Group LLC Decreases Holdings in Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN)

HF Advisory Group LLC lowered its holdings in shares of Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN) by 2.1% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 2,147 shares of the medical research company’s stock after selling 45 shares during the quarter. HF Advisory Group LLC’s holdings in Amgen were worth $619,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Amgen by 0.3% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 49,035,981 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $13,178,910,000 after acquiring an additional 165,636 shares during the period. Morgan Stanley lifted its holdings in shares of Amgen by 12.9% during the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 13,301,365 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $3,493,471,000 after purchasing an additional 1,523,665 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of Amgen by 1.1% in the 1st 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 in the last quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Amgen by 83,875.6% in the 4th 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 buying an additional 7,532,031 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp increased its position in Amgen by 3.8% during the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 6,977,625 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $1,875,306,000 after buying an additional 255,463 shares in the last quarter. 76.50% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Amgen Stock Performance

NASDAQ AMGN traded up $1.32 on Thursday, reaching $265.39. 239,840 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,826,299. The firm has a market capitalization of $142.23 billion, a PE ratio of 21.14, a PEG ratio of 2.47 and a beta of 0.58. Amgen Inc. has a one year low of $211.71 and a one year high of $329.72. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $277.99 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $281.37. 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 quarterly 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. The business had revenue of $8.20 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.13 billion. Amgen had a return on equity of 154.27% and a net margin of 23.83%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 19.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned $4.09 earnings per share. Analysts expect that Amgen Inc. will post 19.46 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 issued a dividend of $2.25 per share. This represents a $9.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.39%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 16th. Amgen’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 72.06%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on AMGN shares. SVB Leerink cut Amgen from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and cut their target price for the stock from $324.00 to $318.00 in a research note on Wednesday, February 7th. TD Cowen cut their price objective on shares of Amgen from $370.00 to $360.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday. 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. StockNews.com cut shares of Amgen from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, March 28th. Finally, Oppenheimer reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $350.00 price objective on shares of Amgen in a research report on Thursday, February 1st. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $296.95.

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.