Vista Investment Partners LLC Makes New Investment in Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN)

Vista Investment Partners LLC bought a new position in Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN) during the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor bought 674 shares of the medical research company’s stock, valued at approximately $211,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Amgen by 6.2% in 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 acquiring an additional 3,045,657 shares during the last quarter. Capital International Investors increased 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 purchasing an additional 5,923,915 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its position in shares of Amgen by 3.9% during the 4th 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 increased its position in shares of Amgen by 14.8% during the 4th 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. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Amgen during the 4th quarter valued at about $1,556,912,000. 76.50% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

AMGN has been the topic of several recent research reports. Morgan Stanley reduced their price objective on Amgen from $310.00 to $303.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, July 11th. Bank of America increased their price objective on Amgen from $325.00 to $330.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. Mizuho increased their price objective on Amgen from $223.00 to $235.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 9th. StockNews.com upgraded Amgen from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, May 3rd. Finally, UBS Group increased their target price on Amgen from $284.00 to $307.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, May 3rd. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Amgen presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $326.89.

Amgen Trading Down 0.5 %

NASDAQ AMGN traded down $1.69 on Friday, hitting $321.44. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 1,442,483 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,616,239. Amgen Inc. has a 52-week low of $248.38 and a 52-week high of $346.85. The company has a current ratio of 1.42, a quick ratio of 0.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 11.96. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $319.99 and its 200 day simple moving average is $299.24. The firm has a market cap of $172.43 billion, a P/E ratio of 45.92, a PEG ratio of 2.78 and a beta of 0.58.

Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, August 6th. The medical research company reported $4.97 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.01 by ($0.04). The firm had revenue of $8.39 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.35 billion. Amgen had a net margin of 12.74% and a return on equity of 156.21%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 20.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $5.00 EPS. Research analysts predict that Amgen Inc. will post 19.5 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Amgen Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 6th. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 16th will be paid a $2.25 dividend. This represents a $9.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.80%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, August 16th. Amgen’s payout ratio 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.