Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN) Shares Bought by Baxter Bros Inc.

Baxter Bros Inc. grew its holdings in Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN) by 1.6% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 2,923 shares of the medical research company’s stock after purchasing an additional 45 shares during the quarter. Baxter Bros Inc.’s holdings in Amgen were worth $842,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the stock. OFI Invest Asset Management purchased a new position in Amgen during the third quarter worth about $26,000. Briaud Financial Planning Inc purchased a new stake in shares of Amgen during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $26,000. BOK Financial Private Wealth Inc. acquired a new position in Amgen in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $29,000. Providence Capital Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Amgen in the third quarter worth approximately $30,000. Finally, Planned Solutions Inc. acquired a new stake in Amgen during the fourth quarter worth $30,000. 76.50% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity at Amgen

In other news, SVP Nancy A. Grygiel sold 2,117 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $313.09, for a total transaction of $662,811.53. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 9,883 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,094,268.47. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 0.46% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts recently issued reports on AMGN shares. Oppenheimer reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $350.00 price objective on shares of Amgen in a research report on Thursday, February 1st. William Blair raised shares of Amgen from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday. Barclays raised shares of Amgen from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $230.00 to $300.00 in a research report on Friday. Royal Bank of Canada cut their target price on Amgen from $332.00 to $328.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday. Finally, SVB Leerink lowered Amgen from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and lowered their price target for the stock from $324.00 to $318.00 in a research report on Wednesday, February 7th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Amgen has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $305.05.

Amgen Price Performance

AMGN stock traded up $32.90 during trading on Friday, reaching $311.29. 9,644,682 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,279,398. Amgen Inc. has a 52-week low of $211.71 and a 52-week high of $329.72. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 10.14, a quick ratio of 1.13 and a current ratio of 1.65. The company has a market cap of $166.97 billion, a P/E ratio of 44.47, a PEG ratio of 3.01 and a beta of 0.60. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $274.95 and its 200 day moving average price is $281.50.

Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 2nd. The medical research company reported $3.96 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.76 by $0.20. The business had revenue of $7.45 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $7.45 billion. Amgen had a return on equity of 145.62% and a net margin of 12.74%. The company’s revenue was up 22.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $3.98 EPS. As a group, analysts predict that Amgen Inc. will post 19.46 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Amgen Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 7th. Investors of record on Friday, May 17th will be given a $2.25 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 16th. This represents a $9.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.89%. Amgen’s dividend payout ratio is presently 128.57%.

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.