Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) Upgraded by Barclays to “Equal Weight”

Barclays upgraded shares of Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) from an underweight rating to an equal weight rating in a research report report published on Friday, MarketBeat reports. The firm currently has $300.00 price objective on the medical research company’s stock, up from their previous price objective of $230.00.

Several other analysts have also issued reports on AMGN. SVB Leerink lowered shares of Amgen from an outperform rating to a market perform rating and dropped their price target for the stock from $324.00 to $318.00 in a research report on Wednesday, February 7th. Leerink Partnrs lowered shares of Amgen from an outperform rating to a market perform rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 7th. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price objective on shares of Amgen from $313.00 to $350.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 7th. Oppenheimer reissued an outperform rating and issued a $350.00 price objective on shares of Amgen in a research report on Thursday, February 1st. Finally, 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 report on Wednesday, April 17th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $305.05.

Amgen Stock Performance

NASDAQ AMGN traded up $32.90 on Friday, hitting $311.29. 9,644,682 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,279,398. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 10.14, a current ratio of 1.65 and a quick ratio of 1.13. The business’s fifty day moving average is $274.51 and its 200 day moving average is $281.33. Amgen has a 52 week low of $211.71 and a 52 week high of $329.72. The company has a market capitalization of $166.97 billion, a PE ratio of 44.47, a P/E/G ratio of 2.69 and a beta of 0.60.

Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 2nd. The medical research company reported $3.96 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.76 by $0.20. Amgen had a net margin of 12.74% and a return on equity of 145.62%. The firm had revenue of $7.45 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $7.45 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $3.98 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 22.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts anticipate that Amgen will post 19.43 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Amgen Dividend Announcement

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 paid a $2.25 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 16th. This represents a $9.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.89%. Amgen’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 128.57%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Amgen news, SVP Nancy A. Grygiel sold 2,117 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 $3,094,268.47. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Corporate insiders own 0.46% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Amgen

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in Amgen by 0.3% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 49,035,981 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $13,178,910,000 after buying an additional 165,636 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp grew its stake in Amgen by 3.8% during the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 6,977,625 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $1,875,306,000 after buying an additional 255,463 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its stake 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 in the last quarter. Royal Bank of Canada grew its stake in Amgen by 14.8% during the fourth 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Amgen during the fourth quarter worth about $1,556,912,000. 76.50% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Amgen

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.