Jefferies Financial Group Reaffirms “Buy” Rating for Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN)

Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN)‘s stock had its “buy” rating reissued by equities research analysts at Jefferies Financial Group in a report issued on Tuesday,Benzinga reports. They currently have a $380.00 price objective on the medical research company’s stock. Jefferies Financial Group’s price target would suggest a potential upside of 27.04% from the company’s previous close.

A number of other brokerages have also recently weighed in on AMGN. UBS Group dropped their price objective on Amgen from $335.00 to $326.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Robert W. Baird reissued an “underperform” rating and issued a $215.00 target price on shares of Amgen in a report on Wednesday, September 25th. Dbs Bank raised Amgen to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, September 16th. StockNews.com raised Amgen from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Finally, Bank of America upped their price target on Amgen from $325.00 to $330.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 7th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have issued a hold rating, eleven have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Amgen has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $333.50.

Amgen Stock Down 7.1 %

Shares of AMGN stock traded down $22.69 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, hitting $299.12. The stock had a trading volume of 5,303,394 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,423,743. Amgen has a 12-month low of $260.52 and a 12-month high of $346.85. The firm has a market capitalization of $160.79 billion, a P/E ratio of 37.99, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.90 and a beta of 0.60. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $323.37 and its two-hundred day moving average is $318.07. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 7.55, a current ratio of 1.32 and a quick ratio of 0.96.

Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The medical research company reported $5.58 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $5.11 by $0.47. The business had revenue of $8.50 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.50 billion. Amgen had a return on equity of 168.35% and a net margin of 13.00%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 23.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $4.96 EPS. On average, analysts predict that Amgen will post 19.51 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Amgen

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Kingsview Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Amgen by 37.8% in the 3rd quarter. Kingsview Wealth Management LLC now owns 45,272 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $14,587,000 after purchasing an additional 12,430 shares during the last quarter. Cerity Partners LLC raised its holdings in shares of Amgen by 14.5% in the third quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 395,273 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $127,361,000 after acquiring an additional 50,034 shares during the last quarter. Great Valley Advisor Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Amgen by 130.4% in the third quarter. Great Valley Advisor Group Inc. now owns 17,908 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $5,770,000 after acquiring an additional 10,136 shares during the last quarter. Montrusco Bolton Investments Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Amgen by 2.0% in the third quarter. Montrusco Bolton Investments Inc. now owns 1,588,440 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $500,527,000 after acquiring an additional 30,731 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Nwam LLC increased its stake in Amgen by 1.2% in the third quarter. Nwam LLC now owns 17,227 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $5,551,000 after purchasing an additional 196 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 76.50% of the company’s stock.

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.