Linden Thomas Advisory Services LLC Increases Stock Position in Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN)

Linden Thomas Advisory Services LLC boosted its stake in Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN) by 4.5% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 7,168 shares of the medical research company’s stock after buying an additional 307 shares during the quarter. Linden Thomas Advisory Services LLC’s holdings in Amgen were worth $2,065,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. raised its position in Amgen by 1.7% in the 3rd quarter. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. now owns 11,658 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $3,133,000 after purchasing an additional 193 shares during the period. Diversified Trust Co raised its position in Amgen by 76.8% in the 4th quarter. Diversified Trust Co now owns 37,695 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $10,857,000 after purchasing an additional 16,376 shares during the period. Nicolet Advisory Services LLC raised its position in Amgen by 4.4% in the 3rd quarter. Nicolet Advisory Services LLC now owns 2,805 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $745,000 after purchasing an additional 117 shares during the period. Platform Technology Partners raised its position in Amgen by 7.4% in the 3rd quarter. Platform Technology Partners now owns 5,830 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $1,567,000 after purchasing an additional 402 shares during the period. Finally, Traynor Capital Management Inc. grew its stake in Amgen by 9.5% in the 4th quarter. Traynor Capital Management Inc. now owns 18,941 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $5,455,000 after acquiring an additional 1,650 shares in the last quarter. 76.50% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have commented on AMGN. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $329.00 target price on shares of Amgen in a research note on Wednesday, April 3rd. TD Cowen dropped their price objective on shares of Amgen from $370.00 to $360.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 17th. UBS Group dropped their price objective on shares of Amgen from $314.00 to $284.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 17th. Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on shares of Amgen from $281.00 to $278.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, February 7th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded shares of Amgen from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 28th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten 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 price target of $296.95.

Amgen Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ AMGN traded up $2.07 during trading on Tuesday, hitting $273.98. The company had a trading volume of 1,565,144 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,832,164. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $276.45 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $281.56. Amgen Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $211.71 and a fifty-two week high of $329.72. The firm has a market capitalization of $146.96 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.77, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.50 and a beta of 0.58. The company has a quick ratio of 1.13, a current ratio of 1.65 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 10.14.

Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, February 6th. The medical research company reported $4.71 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.66 by $0.05. Amgen had a net margin of 23.83% and a return on equity of 154.27%. The business had revenue of $8.20 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.13 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $4.09 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 19.8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts expect that Amgen Inc. will post 19.45 earnings per share for the current year.

Amgen Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 7th. Investors of record on Friday, May 17th will be given a dividend of $2.25 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 16th. This represents a $9.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.28%. Amgen’s payout ratio is presently 72.06%.

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.