Lowe Brockenbrough & Co. Inc. Sells 312 Shares of Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN)

Lowe Brockenbrough & Co. Inc. reduced its position in Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN) by 1.3% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 24,324 shares of the medical research company’s stock after selling 312 shares during the period. Lowe Brockenbrough & Co. Inc.’s holdings in Amgen were worth $6,340,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Centricity Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Amgen in the 4th quarter valued at about $25,000. Legacy Investment Solutions LLC bought a new position in Amgen in the third quarter worth approximately $29,000. Synergy Investment Management LLC bought a new position in Amgen in the fourth quarter worth approximately $34,000. Atala Financial Inc purchased a new stake in Amgen during the fourth quarter worth $34,000. Finally, Heck Capital Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Amgen during the 4th quarter valued at $36,000. 76.50% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on AMGN shares. Piper Sandler Companies restated an “overweight” rating and set a $310.00 price objective on shares of Amgen in a research note on Thursday, January 2nd. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft decreased their price target on shares of Amgen from $305.00 to $285.00 in a research report on Wednesday, November 27th. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $324.00 price objective on shares of Amgen in a research report on Friday, January 24th. Johnson Rice set a $294.00 target price on shares of Amgen in a research report on Wednesday, March 5th. Finally, Leerink Partners lowered their target price on shares of Amgen from $349.00 to $302.00 in a research note on Wednesday, November 27th. Two equities 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 assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Amgen presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $314.04.

Insider Activity

In other news, EVP David M. Reese sold 8,711 shares of Amgen stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $293.22, for a total transaction of $2,554,239.42. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 62,147 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $18,222,743.34. The trade was a 12.29 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, EVP Jonathan P. Graham sold 25,045 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 7th. The shares were 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 owns 28,987 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,496,669.44. This represents a 46.35 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 69,341 shares of company stock valued at $20,644,335 in the last quarter. 0.69% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Amgen Trading Down 0.2 %

Amgen stock opened at $315.04 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $296.17 and a 200 day moving average price of $299.14. The company has a market capitalization of $169.24 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 41.73, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.63 and a beta of 0.53. Amgen Inc. has a 52 week low of $253.30 and a 52 week high of $346.85. The company has a quick ratio of 0.95, a current ratio of 1.26 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 9.62.

Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 4th. The medical research company reported $5.31 EPS for the quarter, beating 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%. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Amgen Inc. will post 20.62 EPS for the current year.

Amgen Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 6th. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 16th will be paid a dividend of $2.38 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 16th. This represents a $9.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.02%. Amgen’s payout ratio is currently 126.09%.

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.