Plimoth Trust Co. LLC Raises Holdings in Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN)

Plimoth Trust Co. LLC grew its position in Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN) by 3.5% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 11,107 shares of the medical research company’s stock after purchasing an additional 371 shares during the quarter. Plimoth Trust Co. LLC’s holdings in Amgen were worth $2,895,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Ibex Wealth Advisors raised its position in shares of Amgen by 14.7% in the 4th quarter. Ibex Wealth Advisors now owns 26,963 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $7,027,000 after acquiring an additional 3,460 shares in the last quarter. Invesco LLC increased its position in Amgen by 0.5% during the 4th quarter. Invesco LLC now owns 11,451 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $2,985,000 after buying an additional 62 shares in the last quarter. Swedbank AB increased its position in Amgen by 4.7% during the 4th quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 564,381 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $147,100,000 after buying an additional 25,482 shares in the last quarter. Allen Capital Group LLC increased its position in Amgen by 14.6% during the 4th quarter. Allen Capital Group LLC now owns 1,565 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $408,000 after buying an additional 199 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Strategic Blueprint LLC increased its position in Amgen by 2.2% during the 4th quarter. Strategic Blueprint LLC now owns 6,187 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $1,613,000 after buying an additional 136 shares in the last quarter. 76.50% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts recently issued reports on the company. Piper Sandler reduced their target price on Amgen from $344.00 to $310.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, January 2nd. Wolfe Research began coverage on Amgen in a report on Friday, November 15th. They issued a “peer perform” rating on the stock. Jefferies Financial Group reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $380.00 price objective on shares of Amgen in a report on Tuesday, November 12th. Bank of America reissued an “underperform” rating and issued a $256.00 price objective on shares of Amgen in a report on Tuesday, December 10th. Finally, TD Cowen increased their price objective on Amgen from $381.00 to $383.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, October 21st. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have issued a hold rating, thirteen have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $314.00.

Amgen Price Performance

AMGN stock traded up $2.33 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, reaching $282.63. 128,950 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,919,739. The company has a market cap of $151.92 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.17, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.78 and a beta of 0.56. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $271.48 and its 200 day moving average is $305.15. Amgen Inc. has a 12-month low of $253.30 and a 12-month high of $346.85. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 7.55, a current ratio of 1.32 and a quick ratio of 0.96.

Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The medical research company reported $5.58 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $5.11 by $0.47. The business had revenue of $8.50 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.50 billion. Amgen had a return on equity of 168.35% and a net margin of 13.00%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 23.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $4.96 earnings per share. On average, research analysts expect that Amgen Inc. will post 19.56 EPS for the current year.

Amgen Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 7th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 14th will be given a $2.38 dividend. This represents a $9.52 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.37%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 14th. This is an increase from Amgen’s previous quarterly dividend of $2.25. Amgen’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 115.24%.

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.