Guidance Capital Inc. Trims Stock Holdings in Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN)

Guidance Capital Inc. lessened its holdings in shares of Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN) by 46.1% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 3,298 shares of the medical research company’s stock after selling 2,816 shares during the period. Guidance Capital Inc.’s holdings in Amgen were worth $908,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Talbot Financial LLC increased its stake in shares of Amgen by 5.6% during the fourth quarter. Talbot Financial LLC now owns 42,791 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $11,153,000 after purchasing an additional 2,274 shares in the last quarter. Swiss National Bank raised its stake in Amgen by 0.3% during the third quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 1,592,233 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $513,033,000 after buying an additional 5,500 shares during the last quarter. Asset Advisors Investment Management LLC boosted its holdings in Amgen by 9.0% in the third quarter. Asset Advisors Investment Management LLC now owns 35,934 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $11,578,000 after acquiring an additional 2,954 shares in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Amgen by 6.0% during the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 635,172 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $204,659,000 after acquiring an additional 35,785 shares in the last quarter. Finally, First Horizon Advisors Inc. raised its position in shares of Amgen by 3.2% in the 3rd quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 60,769 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $19,581,000 after purchasing an additional 1,872 shares during the last quarter. 76.50% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

AMGN has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price objective on shares of Amgen from $335.00 to $280.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, January 10th. Jefferies Financial Group reissued a “buy” rating and set a $380.00 price target on shares of Amgen in a research report on Tuesday, November 12th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lowered their price objective on Amgen from $305.00 to $285.00 in a research report on Wednesday, November 27th. Piper Sandler decreased their price target on Amgen from $344.00 to $310.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, January 2nd. Finally, Bank of America reaffirmed an “underperform” rating and set a $256.00 price objective on shares of Amgen in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have assigned a hold rating, thirteen have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Amgen has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $314.00.

Amgen Stock Up 0.1 %

AMGN opened at $289.02 on Wednesday. The stock has a market cap of $155.36 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.01, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.87 and a beta of 0.56. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 7.55, a quick ratio of 0.96 and a current ratio of 1.32. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $270.95 and its 200 day moving average is $303.82. Amgen Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $253.30 and a fifty-two week high of $346.85.

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 return on equity of 168.35% and a net margin of 13.00%. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Amgen Inc. will post 19.56 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Amgen Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 7th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 14th will be given 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 dividend yield of 3.29%. This is a boost from Amgen’s previous quarterly dividend of $2.25. Amgen’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 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.