Lowe Brockenbrough & Co. Inc. Lowers Stock Holdings in Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN)

Lowe Brockenbrough & Co. Inc. cut its holdings in shares of Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN) by 27.6% during the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 24,636 shares of the medical research company’s stock after selling 9,395 shares during the quarter. Lowe Brockenbrough & Co. Inc.’s holdings in Amgen were worth $7,938,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Capital International Investors lifted its holdings in shares of Amgen by 547.8% during the 1st quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 7,005,269 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $1,991,738,000 after acquiring an additional 5,923,915 shares during the period. Pathway Financial Advisers LLC increased its position in Amgen by 33,125.4% during the third quarter. Pathway Financial Advisers LLC now owns 4,460,181 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $1,437,115,000 after purchasing an additional 4,446,757 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in Amgen by 6.2% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 52,088,210 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $14,809,720,000 after purchasing an additional 3,045,657 shares during the period. International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Amgen by 6,812.4% in the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 2,523,387 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $8,130,610,000 after purchasing an additional 2,486,882 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Janus Henderson Group PLC grew its stake in shares of Amgen by 137.1% during the 1st quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 2,381,133 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $676,984,000 after buying an additional 1,377,007 shares during the period. 76.50% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on AMGN shares. TD Cowen lifted their target price on Amgen from $381.00 to $383.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, October 21st. Barclays lifted their price objective on Amgen from $300.00 to $315.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, October 7th. Jefferies Financial Group reissued a “buy” rating and set a $380.00 target price (up previously from $375.00) on shares of Amgen in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. Morgan Stanley cut their price target on shares of Amgen from $310.00 to $303.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, July 11th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company downgraded shares of Amgen from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $320.00 to $335.00 in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have issued a hold rating, eleven have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $333.50.

Amgen Trading Down 0.3 %

AMGN opened at $319.22 on Friday. Amgen Inc. has a 12-month low of $260.52 and a 12-month high of $346.85. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 9.64, a current ratio of 1.26 and a quick ratio of 0.89. The stock has a market capitalization of $171.53 billion, a PE ratio of 40.87, a P/E/G ratio of 2.84 and a beta of 0.61. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $324.47 and its 200 day moving average price is $315.19.

Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The medical research company reported $5.58 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.11 by $0.47. The business had revenue of $8.50 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.50 billion. Amgen had a net margin of 13.00% and a return on equity of 181.58%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 23.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $4.96 EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that Amgen Inc. will post 19.48 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Amgen Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 9th. Stockholders of record on Monday, November 18th will be issued a $2.25 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, November 18th. This represents a $9.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.82%. 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.