Pinnacle Wealth Management Advisory Group LLC Raises Position in Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN)

Pinnacle Wealth Management Advisory Group LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN) by 1.8% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 13,104 shares of the medical research company’s stock after buying an additional 238 shares during the quarter. Pinnacle Wealth Management Advisory Group LLC’s holdings in Amgen were worth $3,774,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. boosted its stake 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 in the last quarter. Diversified Trust Co increased its stake in shares of Amgen by 76.8% in the fourth quarter. Diversified Trust Co now owns 37,695 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $10,857,000 after acquiring an additional 16,376 shares during the period. Provence Wealth Management Group raised its holdings in shares of Amgen by 11.9% during the fourth quarter. Provence Wealth Management Group now owns 1,445 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $416,000 after purchasing an additional 154 shares during the last quarter. Nicolet Advisory Services LLC lifted its position in Amgen by 4.4% during the third quarter. Nicolet Advisory Services LLC now owns 2,805 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $745,000 after purchasing an additional 117 shares during the period. Finally, Platform Technology Partners boosted its holdings in Amgen by 7.4% in the third quarter. Platform Technology Partners now owns 5,830 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $1,567,000 after purchasing an additional 402 shares during the last quarter. 76.50% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

AMGN has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Leerink Partnrs lowered shares of Amgen from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 7th. UBS Group upped their price target on shares of Amgen from $284.00 to $307.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, May 3rd. Royal Bank of Canada cut their price objective on Amgen from $332.00 to $328.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, May 3rd. StockNews.com raised Amgen from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, May 3rd. Finally, SVB Leerink lowered Amgen from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and decreased their price objective for the company from $324.00 to $318.00 in a report on Wednesday, February 7th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Amgen has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $305.65.

Insider Buying and Selling at Amgen

In related news, SVP Nancy A. Grygiel sold 2,117 shares of the stock in a transaction on 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 directly owns 9,883 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,094,268.47. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Company insiders own 0.69% of the company’s stock.

Amgen Stock Performance

Shares of Amgen stock traded up $5.93 on Thursday, hitting $313.24. The stock had a trading volume of 1,159,404 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,889,674. The stock has a market cap of $168.03 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 43.90, a P/E/G ratio of 3.00 and a beta of 0.60. The company has a current ratio of 1.42, a quick ratio of 0.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 11.96. Amgen Inc. has a 52-week low of $211.71 and a 52-week high of $329.72. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $275.65 and its 200 day moving average price is $281.74.

Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 2nd. The medical research company reported $3.96 earnings per share 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 business had revenue of $7.45 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $7.45 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $3.98 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 22.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts anticipate that Amgen Inc. will post 19.46 EPS for the current year.

Amgen Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 7th. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 17th will be paid a dividend of $2.25 per share. This represents a $9.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.87%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 16th. Amgen’s dividend payout ratio is presently 128.57%.

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.