Advisor Resource Council Lowers Holdings in Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN)

Advisor Resource Council decreased its holdings in Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN) by 73.8% in the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 774 shares of the medical research company’s stock after selling 2,181 shares during the quarter. Advisor Resource Council’s holdings in Amgen were worth $223,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the business. Kovack Advisors Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Amgen by 23.8% in the first quarter. Kovack Advisors Inc. now owns 3,694 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $1,050,000 after purchasing an additional 711 shares during the period. DMC Group LLC lifted its stake in Amgen by 7.0% in the first quarter. DMC Group LLC now owns 3,627 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $1,031,000 after acquiring an additional 236 shares during the last quarter. Abundance Wealth Counselors lifted its stake in Amgen by 2.6% in the first quarter. Abundance Wealth Counselors now owns 9,194 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $2,614,000 after acquiring an additional 229 shares during the last quarter. Norden Group LLC lifted its stake in Amgen by 3,179.0% in the first quarter. Norden Group LLC now owns 237,006 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $67,385,000 after acquiring an additional 229,778 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bourgeon Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Amgen by 27.6% in the first quarter. Bourgeon Capital Management LLC now owns 53,936 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $15,335,000 after acquiring an additional 11,678 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 76.50% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have weighed in on AMGN. Raymond James began coverage on shares of Amgen in a report on Thursday, March 28th. They set a “market perform” rating on the stock. BMO Capital Markets raised their price objective on shares of Amgen from $336.00 to $355.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, May 3rd. Argus raised their price objective on shares of Amgen from $300.00 to $340.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, June 27th. William Blair raised shares of Amgen from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, May 3rd. Finally, Barclays raised shares of Amgen from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and lifted their target price for the company from $230.00 to $300.00 in a report on Friday, May 3rd. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $307.35.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Amgen news, SVP Nancy A. Grygiel sold 2,117 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction 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 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 legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Insiders own 0.69% of the company’s stock.

Amgen Stock Performance

AMGN traded down $1.39 during trading on Thursday, hitting $309.38. The stock had a trading volume of 1,000,711 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,340,821. The firm has a market capitalization of $165.96 billion, a P/E ratio of 44.20, a PEG ratio of 2.81 and a beta of 0.58. Amgen Inc. has a twelve month low of $218.44 and a twelve month high of $329.72. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $303.09 and its 200 day moving average price is $292.80. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 11.96, a quick ratio of 0.98 and a current ratio of 1.42.

Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, May 2nd. The medical research company reported $3.96 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.76 by $0.20. The company had revenue of $7.45 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $7.45 billion. Amgen had a net margin of 12.74% and a return on equity of 156.21%. The business’s revenue was up 22.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $3.98 EPS. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Amgen Inc. will post 19.47 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.