Peregrine Asset Advisers Inc. Purchases 200 Shares of Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN)

Peregrine Asset Advisers Inc. lifted its position in shares of Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN) by 4.4% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 4,700 shares of the medical research company’s stock after acquiring an additional 200 shares during the period. Peregrine Asset Advisers Inc.’s holdings in Amgen were worth $1,225,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. State Street Corp increased its holdings in shares of Amgen by 1.2% in the 3rd 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 boosted its position in shares of Amgen by 0.9% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 12,122,889 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $3,893,771,000 after buying an additional 103,851 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its holdings in 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 buying an additional 251,876 shares in the last quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC raised its position in Amgen by 11.7% in the 3rd quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 5,143,330 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $1,657,183,000 after buying an additional 538,545 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Pathway Financial Advisers LLC lifted its stake in Amgen by 33,125.4% during the 3rd quarter. Pathway Financial Advisers LLC now owns 4,460,181 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $1,437,115,000 after acquiring an additional 4,446,757 shares during the period. 76.50% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

AMGN has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Leerink Partners reduced their price target on shares of Amgen from $349.00 to $302.00 in a research note on Wednesday, November 27th. Piper Sandler lifted their target price on shares of Amgen from $310.00 to $329.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, February 10th. Bank of America increased their price target on Amgen from $256.00 to $275.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a report on Thursday, February 6th. UBS Group cut their price objective on Amgen from $335.00 to $326.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, William Blair reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Amgen in a report on Tuesday, November 12th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating, twelve have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $314.09.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, EVP David M. Reese sold 8,711 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $293.22, for a total value of $2,554,239.42. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 62,147 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $18,222,743.34. This trade represents a 12.29 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Jonathan P. Graham sold 25,045 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $293.12, for a total transaction of $7,341,190.40. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 28,987 shares in the company, valued at $8,496,669.44. This represents a 46.35 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 69,341 shares of company stock worth $20,644,335 in the last 90 days. 0.69% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Amgen Price Performance

NASDAQ:AMGN opened at $303.01 on Friday. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $276.27 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $300.59. Amgen Inc. has a 52 week low of $253.30 and a 52 week high of $346.85. The stock has a market cap of $162.78 billion, a PE ratio of 40.13, a P/E/G ratio of 2.55 and a beta of 0.56. The company has a quick ratio of 0.95, a current ratio of 1.26 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 9.62.

Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The medical research company reported $5.31 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.04 by $0.27. Amgen had a return on equity of 176.32% and a net margin of 12.24%. As a group, analysts forecast that Amgen Inc. will post 20.6 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Amgen Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 7th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 14th will be issued a $2.38 dividend. This is an increase from Amgen’s previous quarterly dividend of $2.25. This represents a $9.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.14%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 14th. Amgen’s payout ratio is currently 126.09%.

About Amgen

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.