D Orazio & Associates Inc. Sells 94 Shares of Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN)

D Orazio & Associates Inc. reduced its stake in Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN) by 3.0% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 3,008 shares of the medical research company’s stock after selling 94 shares during the quarter. D Orazio & Associates Inc.’s holdings in Amgen were worth $784,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. Talbot Financial LLC increased its holdings in Amgen by 5.6% during the 4th quarter. Talbot Financial LLC now owns 42,791 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $11,153,000 after purchasing an additional 2,274 shares during the period. Swiss National Bank grew its position in shares of Amgen by 0.3% during the 3rd quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 1,592,233 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $513,033,000 after buying an additional 5,500 shares in the last quarter. Asset Advisors Investment Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Amgen by 9.0% during the third quarter. Asset Advisors Investment Management LLC now owns 35,934 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $11,578,000 after buying an additional 2,954 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Amgen by 6.0% in the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 635,172 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $204,659,000 after acquiring an additional 35,785 shares in the last quarter. Finally, First Horizon Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in Amgen by 3.2% in the third quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 60,769 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $19,581,000 after acquiring an additional 1,872 shares during the period. 76.50% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Leerink Partners lowered their price target on shares of Amgen from $349.00 to $302.00 in a research report on Wednesday, November 27th. Bank of America boosted their price target on Amgen from $256.00 to $275.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a research report on Thursday. Piper Sandler Companies reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $310.00 target price on shares of Amgen in a report on Thursday, January 2nd. TD Cowen lifted their price objective on shares of Amgen from $381.00 to $383.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, October 21st. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $380.00 price objective on shares of Amgen in a research note on Tuesday, November 12th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating, twelve have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Amgen has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $313.23.

Insider Activity

In other Amgen news, SVP Nancy A. Grygiel sold 1,589 shares of Amgen stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $304.47, for a total value of $483,802.83. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 7,210 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,195,228.70. The trade was a 18.06 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Insiders own 0.69% of the company’s stock.

Amgen Trading Down 1.4 %

Shares of Amgen stock opened at $293.54 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $157.79 billion, a PE ratio of 37.59, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.87 and a beta of 0.56. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $272.04 and a 200 day moving average price of $303.51. Amgen Inc. has a 1 year low of $253.30 and a 1 year high of $346.85. 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 (NASDAQ:AMGN) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 4th. The medical research company reported $5.31 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.04 by $0.27. Amgen had a return on equity of 168.35% and a net margin of 13.00%. Equities research analysts predict that Amgen Inc. will post 19.56 earnings per share for the current 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 dividend of $2.38 per share. This is a boost from Amgen’s previous quarterly dividend of $2.25. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 14th. This represents a $9.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.24%. Amgen’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 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.