Apollon Wealth Management LLC Reduces Stock Position in Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN)

Apollon Wealth Management LLC decreased its position in Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN) by 2.7% in the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 21,353 shares of the medical research company’s stock after selling 591 shares during the period. Apollon Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Amgen were worth $6,672,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in Amgen by 6.2% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 52,088,210 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $14,809,720,000 after acquiring an additional 3,045,657 shares during the last quarter. Capital International Investors increased its stake in Amgen by 547.8% in the first quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 7,005,269 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $1,991,738,000 after purchasing an additional 5,923,915 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its position in Amgen by 3.9% during the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 6,564,710 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $1,890,769,000 after buying an additional 243,720 shares during the period. Royal Bank of Canada boosted its stake in Amgen by 14.8% in the 4th quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 5,831,624 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $1,679,625,000 after buying an additional 751,947 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Amgen in the 4th quarter valued at about $1,556,912,000. 76.50% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on AMGN shares. StockNews.com raised shares of Amgen from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, May 3rd. Barclays raised shares of Amgen from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $230.00 to $300.00 in a research note on Friday, May 3rd. Jefferies Financial Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $380.00 target price (up from $375.00) on shares of Amgen in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. Wells Fargo & Company downgraded Amgen from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $320.00 to $335.00 in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. Finally, Bank of America upped their price target on Amgen from $325.00 to $330.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $326.89.

Amgen Stock Up 2.0 %

AMGN traded up $6.53 on Monday, reaching $327.97. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 1,214,197 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,607,420. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 11.96, a current ratio of 1.42 and a quick ratio of 0.98. Amgen Inc. has a 1 year low of $248.38 and a 1 year high of $346.85. The business’s 50 day moving average is $319.99 and its 200 day moving average is $299.13. The stock has a market cap of $175.93 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 46.41, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.78 and a beta of 0.58.

Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, August 6th. The medical research company reported $4.97 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.01 by ($0.04). The company had revenue of $8.39 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.35 billion. Amgen had a return on equity of 156.21% and a net margin of 12.74%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 20.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $5.00 EPS. As a group, research analysts forecast that Amgen Inc. will post 19.5 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Amgen Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, August 6th. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 16th were paid a $2.25 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 16th. This represents a $9.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.74%. Amgen’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 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.