Modus Advisors LLC Has $116,000 Stake in Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN)

Modus Advisors LLC reduced its holdings in Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN) by 94.0% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 445 shares of the medical research company’s stock after selling 6,929 shares during the quarter. Modus Advisors LLC’s holdings in Amgen were worth $116,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the business. Swiss National Bank raised its position in Amgen by 0.3% in the third quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 1,592,233 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $513,033,000 after purchasing an additional 5,500 shares in the last quarter. Asset Advisors Investment Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Amgen by 9.0% in the 3rd quarter. Asset Advisors Investment Management LLC now owns 35,934 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $11,578,000 after buying an additional 2,954 shares in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Amgen by 6.0% during the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 635,172 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $204,659,000 after buying an additional 35,785 shares during the period. First Horizon Advisors Inc. boosted its stake in Amgen by 3.2% in the 3rd quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 60,769 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $19,581,000 after buying an additional 1,872 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Napa Wealth Management acquired a new stake in Amgen in the 3rd quarter valued at $1,104,000. 76.50% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have issued reports on AMGN. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft cut their price objective on Amgen from $305.00 to $285.00 in a report on Wednesday, November 27th. Jefferies Financial Group reissued a “buy” rating and set a $380.00 price target on shares of Amgen in a research note on Tuesday, November 12th. Citigroup cut their price objective on shares of Amgen from $335.00 to $310.00 in a report on Wednesday, November 27th. Wolfe Research initiated coverage on Amgen in a research note on Friday, November 15th. They set a “peer perform” rating for the company. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein began coverage on shares of Amgen in a report on Thursday, October 17th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $380.00 price objective on the stock. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have given a hold rating, thirteen have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Amgen currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $318.83.

Amgen Price Performance

Shares of AMGN stock traded up $1.76 during trading on Friday, hitting $261.04. The company had a trading volume of 240,638 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,237,882. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $285.75 and its 200 day moving average price is $310.70. Amgen Inc. has a one year low of $253.30 and a one year high of $346.85. 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 has a market capitalization of $140.32 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.42, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.91 and a beta of 0.55.

Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The medical research company reported $5.58 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $5.11 by $0.47. Amgen had a return on equity of 168.35% and a net margin of 13.00%. The firm had revenue of $8.50 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.50 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $4.96 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 23.2% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts expect that Amgen Inc. will post 19.53 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Amgen Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 7th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 14th will be paid a $2.38 dividend. This is a positive change from Amgen’s previous quarterly dividend of $2.25. This represents a $9.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.65%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 14th. Amgen’s dividend payout ratio is currently 121.90%.

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.