Elevated Capital Advisors LLC Raises Position in Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN)

Elevated Capital Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN) by 8.1% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 1,664 shares of the medical research company’s stock after purchasing an additional 125 shares during the period. Elevated Capital Advisors LLC’s holdings in Amgen were worth $434,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in AMGN. State Street Corp raised its holdings in Amgen by 1.2% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 29,317,018 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $9,446,236,000 after purchasing an additional 345,537 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of Amgen by 0.9% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 12,122,889 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $3,893,771,000 after buying an additional 103,851 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Amgen by 2.4% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 10,532,629 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $3,393,718,000 after acquiring an additional 251,876 shares in the last quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC lifted its position in Amgen by 11.7% during the 3rd quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 5,143,330 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $1,657,183,000 after acquiring an additional 538,545 shares during the period. Finally, Pathway Financial Advisers LLC boosted its stake in Amgen by 33,125.4% during the third quarter. Pathway Financial Advisers LLC now owns 4,460,181 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $1,437,115,000 after acquiring an additional 4,446,757 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 76.50% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have recently issued reports on AMGN. Barclays lifted their target price on shares of Amgen from $300.00 to $315.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, October 7th. UBS Group dropped their target price on Amgen from $335.00 to $326.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Wolfe Research started coverage on Amgen in a report on Friday, November 15th. They set a “peer perform” rating for the company. Robert W. Baird reiterated an “underperform” rating and issued a $215.00 price target on shares of Amgen in a research note on Wednesday, September 25th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group restated a “buy” rating and set a $380.00 price objective on shares of Amgen in a research note on Tuesday, November 12th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have issued a hold rating, thirteen have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Amgen presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $314.91.

Amgen Trading Up 3.0 %

Shares of NASDAQ:AMGN opened at $270.19 on Tuesday. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $278.16 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $308.35. The stock has a market capitalization of $145.24 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.60, a PEG ratio of 2.91 and a beta of 0.56. Amgen Inc. has a 52-week low of $253.30 and a 52-week 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.

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

Amgen Increases Dividend

The business 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 represents a $9.52 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.52%. This is a positive change from Amgen’s previous quarterly dividend of $2.25. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 14th. Amgen’s dividend payout ratio is 121.90%.

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.