Nepsis Inc. Acquires 3,735 Shares of Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN)

Nepsis Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN) by 6.7% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 59,715 shares of the medical research company’s stock after buying an additional 3,735 shares during the quarter. Amgen accounts for approximately 4.6% of Nepsis Inc.’s portfolio, making the stock its 7th biggest position. Nepsis Inc.’s holdings in Amgen were worth $19,241,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in AMGN. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Amgen by 6.2% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 52,088,210 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $14,809,720,000 after buying an additional 3,045,657 shares during the last quarter. Capital International Investors raised its position 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 valued at $1,991,738,000 after acquiring an additional 5,923,915 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its stake in Amgen by 6.4% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,701,631 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $844,137,000 after purchasing an additional 162,223 shares during the last quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC boosted its holdings in Amgen by 137.1% in the first quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 2,381,133 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $676,984,000 after purchasing an additional 1,377,007 shares during the period. Finally, Boston Partners increased its stake in Amgen by 27.4% during the first quarter. Boston Partners now owns 2,237,334 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $635,179,000 after purchasing an additional 481,214 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 76.50% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on AMGN shares. Robert W. Baird restated an “underperform” rating and issued a $215.00 price target on shares of Amgen in a research report on Wednesday, September 25th. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $362.00 target price on shares of Amgen in a report on Thursday, September 26th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reaffirmed a “hold” rating and set a $305.00 target price (down from $310.00) on shares of Amgen in a report on Wednesday, August 7th. Oppenheimer reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $380.00 price target on shares of Amgen in a report on Wednesday, August 7th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lowered Amgen from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $320.00 to $335.00 in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have assigned a hold rating, twelve have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $329.48.

Amgen Price Performance

Shares of Amgen stock traded up $0.33 during trading on Friday, hitting $321.66. The stock had a trading volume of 1,552,126 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,447,665. The business has a fifty day moving average of $326.07 and a two-hundred day moving average of $312.15. Amgen Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $249.70 and a fifty-two week high of $346.85. The firm has a market cap of $172.55 billion, a P/E ratio of 45.95, a PEG ratio of 2.86 and a beta of 0.61. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 9.64, a current ratio of 1.26 and a quick ratio of 0.89.

Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, August 6th. The medical research company reported $4.97 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $5.01 by ($0.04). Amgen had a net margin of 10.12% and a return on equity of 161.72%. The business had revenue of $8.39 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.35 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $5.00 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 20.1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Amgen Inc. will post 19.49 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Amgen Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, August 6th. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 16th were given a dividend of $2.25 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 16th. This represents a $9.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.80%. Amgen’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 128.57%.

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.