Maryland State Retirement & Pension System Boosts Stock Position in Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN)

Maryland State Retirement & Pension System lifted its position in Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN) by 1.1% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 41,589 shares of the medical research company’s stock after purchasing an additional 442 shares during the quarter. Maryland State Retirement & Pension System’s holdings in Amgen were worth $11,978,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Wealthcare Advisory Partners LLC raised its position in Amgen by 2.2% during the 4th quarter. Wealthcare Advisory Partners LLC now owns 11,546 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $3,325,000 after purchasing an additional 252 shares during the last quarter. Spire Wealth Management raised its position in Amgen by 16.7% during the 4th quarter. Spire Wealth Management now owns 7,666 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $2,360,000 after purchasing an additional 1,097 shares during the last quarter. Valley Brook Capital Group Inc. raised its position in Amgen by 7.0% during the 4th quarter. Valley Brook Capital Group Inc. now owns 4,730 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $1,362,000 after purchasing an additional 310 shares during the last quarter. Evergreen Wealth Management LLC raised its position in Amgen by 1.7% during the 4th quarter. Evergreen Wealth Management LLC now owns 4,892 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $1,409,000 after purchasing an additional 84 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Clearstead Trust LLC raised its position in Amgen by 129.6% during the 4th quarter. Clearstead Trust LLC now owns 1,240 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $357,000 after purchasing an additional 700 shares during the last quarter. 76.50% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

AMGN has been the subject of a number of research reports. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on Amgen from $271.00 to $310.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday. Leerink Partnrs cut Amgen from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 7th. Truist Financial reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $320.00 target price on shares of Amgen in a research report on Friday, April 12th. SVB Leerink downgraded Amgen from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and lowered their price objective for the company from $324.00 to $318.00 in a research report on Wednesday, February 7th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reduced their target price on shares of Amgen from $332.00 to $328.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $305.05.

Amgen Trading Up 0.3 %

AMGN traded up $1.00 during midday trading on Tuesday, hitting $300.48. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 1,672,223 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,899,668. The company has a current ratio of 1.42, a quick ratio of 0.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 11.96. The firm has a market cap of $161.17 billion, a P/E ratio of 42.78, a PEG ratio of 3.00 and a beta of 0.60. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $275.21 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $281.59. Amgen Inc. has a 52-week low of $211.71 and a 52-week high of $329.72.

Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 2nd. The medical research company reported $3.96 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.76 by $0.20. Amgen had a return on equity of 156.21% and a net margin of 12.74%. The company had revenue of $7.45 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $7.45 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $3.98 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 22.0% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts anticipate that Amgen Inc. will post 19.46 earnings per share for the current year.

Amgen Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 7th. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 17th will be issued a dividend of $2.25 per share. This represents a $9.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.00%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 16th. Amgen’s payout ratio is currently 128.57%.

Insider Transactions at Amgen

In other news, SVP Nancy A. Grygiel sold 2,117 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $313.09, for a total transaction of $662,811.53. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 9,883 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,094,268.47. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Company insiders own 0.69% of the company’s stock.

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.