Wealthspire Advisors LLC Decreases Position in Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN)

Wealthspire Advisors LLC lessened its holdings in Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN) by 3.8% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 8,341 shares of the medical research company’s stock after selling 328 shares during the quarter. Wealthspire Advisors LLC’s holdings in Amgen were worth $2,174,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Marshall Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in Amgen in the 4th quarter worth $1,547,000. Fisher Funds Management LTD purchased a new position in Amgen in the 4th quarter worth $8,645,000. Pinnacle Financial Partners Inc raised its position in Amgen by 2.6% in the 4th quarter. Pinnacle Financial Partners Inc now owns 59,433 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $15,588,000 after purchasing an additional 1,479 shares during the period. Callan Capital LLC raised its position in Amgen by 10.5% in the 4th quarter. Callan Capital LLC now owns 3,023 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $788,000 after purchasing an additional 287 shares during the period. Finally, Redmond Asset Management LLC purchased a new position in Amgen in the 4th quarter worth $581,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 76.50% of the company’s stock.

Amgen Trading Up 1.7 %

NASDAQ:AMGN opened at $303.01 on Monday. Amgen Inc. has a one year low of $253.30 and a one year high of $346.85. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 9.62, a current ratio of 1.26 and a quick ratio of 0.95. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $276.27 and its 200 day simple moving average is $300.31. The firm has a market capitalization of $162.78 billion, a P/E ratio of 40.13, a PEG ratio of 2.58 and a beta of 0.56.

Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 4th. The medical research company reported $5.31 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $5.04 by $0.27. Amgen had a net margin of 12.24% and a return on equity of 176.32%. As a group, analysts forecast that Amgen Inc. will post 20.6 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Amgen Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 7th. Investors of record on Friday, February 14th will be paid a dividend of $2.38 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 14th. This represents a $9.52 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.14%. This is a positive change from Amgen’s previous quarterly dividend of $2.25. Amgen’s payout ratio is presently 126.09%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts recently commented on the stock. StockNews.com cut shares of Amgen from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 18th. Redburn Partners decreased their price objective on shares of Amgen from $200.00 to $195.00 in a research report on Wednesday, November 27th. Bank of America boosted their price objective on shares of Amgen from $256.00 to $275.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $324.00 price objective on shares of Amgen in a research report on Friday, January 24th. Finally, Citigroup restated a “neutral” rating on shares of Amgen in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating, twelve have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $314.09.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Amgen news, EVP David M. Reese sold 25,225 shares of Amgen stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $304.44, for a total value of $7,679,499.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 36,922 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $11,240,533.68. The trade was a 40.59 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, EVP Jonathan P. Graham sold 25,045 shares of Amgen stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $293.12, for a total transaction of $7,341,190.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 28,987 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,496,669.44. This trade represents a 46.35 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 69,341 shares of company stock valued at $20,644,335 over the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 0.69% 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.