Nixon Peabody Trust Co. Lowers Stock Holdings in Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN)

Nixon Peabody Trust Co. cut its holdings in shares of Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN) by 19.2% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,050 shares of the medical research company’s stock after selling 250 shares during the quarter. Nixon Peabody Trust Co.’s holdings in Amgen were worth $338,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Capital Performance Advisors LLP purchased a new stake in Amgen in the third quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Hershey Financial Advisers LLC acquired a new position in shares of Amgen in the 2nd quarter valued at $30,000. nVerses Capital LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Amgen during the 2nd quarter valued at $31,000. Bbjs Financial Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Amgen during the 2nd quarter worth $33,000. Finally, Matrix Trust Co acquired a new position in shares of Amgen in the 3rd quarter valued at about $36,000. 76.50% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Amgen Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ AMGN traded down $5.50 during mid-day trading on Monday, hitting $278.11. The company had a trading volume of 319,346 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,444,224. The stock has a market cap of $149.49 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.31, a PEG ratio of 2.53 and a beta of 0.60. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $320.85 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $318.65. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 7.55, a current ratio of 1.32 and a quick ratio of 0.96. Amgen Inc. has a 12 month low of $260.52 and a 12 month high of $346.85.

Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The medical research company reported $5.58 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $5.11 by $0.47. The company had revenue of $8.50 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.50 billion. Amgen had a net margin of 13.00% and a return on equity of 168.35%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 23.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $4.96 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Amgen Inc. will post 19.51 earnings per share for the current year.

Amgen Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 9th. Shareholders of record on Monday, November 18th will be given a dividend of $2.25 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, November 18th. This represents a $9.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.24%. Amgen’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 115.24%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts recently issued reports on AMGN shares. TD Cowen raised their price target on shares of Amgen from $381.00 to $383.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, October 21st. Dbs Bank raised Amgen to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, September 16th. StockNews.com raised shares of Amgen from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Cantor Fitzgerald reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $405.00 price objective on shares of Amgen in a research note on Tuesday, October 22nd. Finally, William Blair restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Amgen in a research note on Tuesday, November 12th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have issued a hold rating, eleven have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $333.57.

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.