Artemis Investment Management LLP Sells 14,492 Shares of Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN)

Artemis Investment Management LLP decreased its holdings in Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN) by 47.6% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 15,957 shares of the medical research company’s stock after selling 14,492 shares during the period. Artemis Investment Management LLP’s holdings in Amgen were worth $4,534,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in Amgen by 0.3% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 49,035,981 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $13,178,910,000 after buying an additional 165,636 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its position in shares of Amgen by 3.9% in the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 6,564,710 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $1,890,769,000 after purchasing an additional 243,720 shares during the last quarter. Royal Bank of Canada grew its position in shares of Amgen by 14.8% in the fourth quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 5,831,624 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $1,679,625,000 after purchasing an additional 751,947 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Amgen during the fourth quarter worth approximately $1,556,912,000. Finally, California Public Employees Retirement System increased its stake in shares of Amgen by 22.0% during the fourth quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System now owns 2,716,088 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $782,288,000 after purchasing an additional 490,539 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 76.50% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

AMGN has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. UBS Group increased their target price on Amgen from $284.00 to $307.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, May 3rd. Barclays upgraded Amgen from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $230.00 to $300.00 in a research note on Friday, May 3rd. Mizuho raised their price objective on Amgen from $223.00 to $235.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 9th. William Blair upgraded Amgen from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, May 3rd. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada raised their price objective on Amgen from $328.00 to $332.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, June 14th. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $307.35.

Amgen Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ AMGN traded down $1.24 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $312.45. 3,518,173 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,791,304. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 11.96, a current ratio of 1.42 and a quick ratio of 0.98. Amgen Inc. has a twelve month low of $218.44 and a twelve month high of $329.72. The company has a market cap of $167.61 billion, a PE ratio of 44.81, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.83 and a beta of 0.60. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $299.67 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $291.67.

Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 2nd. The medical research company reported $3.96 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.76 by $0.20. The company had revenue of $7.45 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $7.45 billion. Amgen had a return on equity of 156.21% and a net margin of 12.74%. Amgen’s revenue for the quarter was up 22.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $3.98 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Amgen Inc. will post 19.47 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Amgen news, SVP Nancy A. Grygiel sold 2,117 shares of Amgen stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $313.09, for a total transaction of $662,811.53. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 9,883 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,094,268.47. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Company insiders own 0.69% of the company’s stock.

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.