Simmons Bank Sells 4,360 Shares of Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN)

Simmons Bank trimmed its holdings in Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN) by 16.0% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 22,884 shares of the medical research company’s stock after selling 4,360 shares during the period. Simmons Bank’s holdings in Amgen were worth $6,591,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. International Assets Investment Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Amgen during the fourth quarter worth $4,589,900,000. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. grew its stake in shares of Amgen by 486.6% in the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 899,232 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $258,997,000 after purchasing an additional 745,929 shares during the last quarter. abrdn plc grew its stake in shares of Amgen by 150.4% in the fourth quarter. abrdn plc now owns 1,043,609 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $300,580,000 after purchasing an additional 626,810 shares during the last quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Amgen by 111.9% in the fourth quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC now owns 989,061 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $284,869,000 after purchasing an additional 522,367 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada grew its stake in shares of Amgen by 11.4% in the third quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 5,079,677 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $1,365,213,000 after purchasing an additional 518,689 shares during the last quarter. 76.50% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Amgen news, SVP Nancy A. Grygiel sold 2,117 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $313.09, for a total transaction of $662,811.53. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 9,883 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,094,268.47. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 0.69% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages recently commented on AMGN. TD Cowen decreased their target price on Amgen from $370.00 to $360.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 17th. SVB Leerink downgraded Amgen from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and decreased their target price for the company from $324.00 to $318.00 in a research note on Wednesday, February 7th. Barclays upgraded Amgen from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $230.00 to $300.00 in a report on Friday, May 3rd. UBS Group boosted their price objective on Amgen from $284.00 to $307.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, May 3rd. Finally, Oppenheimer reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $350.00 target price on shares of Amgen in a research report on Thursday, February 1st. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $305.05.

Amgen Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:AMGN traded up $4.75 on Wednesday, hitting $305.05. The stock had a trading volume of 1,588,965 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,894,351. The company has a market capitalization of $163.62 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 43.44, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.00 and a beta of 0.60. Amgen Inc. has a twelve month low of $211.71 and a twelve month high of $329.72. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 11.96, a quick ratio of 0.98 and a current ratio of 1.42. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $275.65 and its 200-day moving average price is $281.74.

Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 2nd. The medical research company reported $3.96 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.76 by $0.20. The company had revenue of $7.45 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $7.45 billion. Amgen had a return on equity of 156.21% and a net margin of 12.74%. Amgen’s revenue for the quarter was up 22.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $3.98 EPS. On average, equities research analysts predict that Amgen Inc. will post 19.46 earnings per share for the current year.

Amgen Announces Dividend

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 paid 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 2.95%. Amgen’s dividend payout ratio is 128.57%.

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.