Avanza Fonder AB Makes New Investment in Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN)

Avanza Fonder AB purchased a new position in shares of Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN) during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm purchased 59,122 shares of the medical research company’s stock, valued at approximately $15,410,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of AMGN. Wealthcare Advisory Partners LLC boosted its stake in Amgen by 3.2% during the fourth quarter. Wealthcare Advisory Partners LLC now owns 13,313 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $3,470,000 after acquiring an additional 416 shares in the last quarter. Procyon Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Amgen by 4.1% during the fourth quarter. Procyon Advisors LLC now owns 9,748 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $2,541,000 after purchasing an additional 385 shares during the period. Tompkins Financial Corp boosted its position in shares of Amgen by 50.9% during the 4th quarter. Tompkins Financial Corp now owns 48,892 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $12,743,000 after purchasing an additional 16,481 shares in the last quarter. RDA Financial Network grew its stake in shares of Amgen by 16.0% in the 4th quarter. RDA Financial Network now owns 1,928 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $503,000 after buying an additional 266 shares during the period. Finally, Hennessy Advisors Inc. increased its position in Amgen by 1.9% in the 4th quarter. Hennessy Advisors Inc. now owns 13,350 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $3,480,000 after buying an additional 250 shares in the last quarter. 76.50% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

AMGN has been the subject of a number of research reports. Royal Bank of Canada reduced their price objective on Amgen from $360.00 to $330.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, November 27th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Amgen from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 18th. Leerink Partners decreased their price target on shares of Amgen from $349.00 to $302.00 in a research note on Wednesday, November 27th. Piper Sandler dropped their price objective on shares of Amgen from $344.00 to $310.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, January 2nd. Finally, Wolfe Research assumed coverage on shares of Amgen in a research report on Friday, November 15th. They set a “peer perform” rating for the company. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have given a hold rating, thirteen have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $314.91.

Amgen Stock Performance

Shares of AMGN stock opened at $273.05 on Friday. 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 Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $253.30 and a fifty-two week high of $346.85. The company has a market capitalization of $146.77 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.12, a PEG ratio of 2.68 and a beta of 0.56. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $276.06 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $307.76.

Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) last posted its 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. Amgen had a return on equity of 168.35% and a net margin of 13.00%. The firm had revenue of $8.50 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.50 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $4.96 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 23.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts expect that Amgen Inc. will post 19.57 earnings per share for the current year.

Amgen Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 7th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 14th will be given a $2.38 dividend. This represents a $9.52 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.49%. This is a boost from Amgen’s previous quarterly dividend of $2.25. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 14th. Amgen’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 115.24%.

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.