State of Michigan Retirement System Has $38.03 Million Stake in Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN)

State of Michigan Retirement System trimmed its holdings in Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN) by 0.3% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 145,897 shares of the medical research company’s stock after selling 400 shares during the period. State of Michigan Retirement System’s holdings in Amgen were worth $38,027,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in AMGN. Swedbank AB raised its position in Amgen by 1.1% during the third quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 538,899 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $173,639,000 after purchasing an additional 5,751 shares in the last quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. raised its position in Amgen by 0.5% during the third quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 11,427 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $3,682,000 after purchasing an additional 54 shares in the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp raised its position in Amgen by 7.0% during the third quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 285,446 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $89,887,000 after purchasing an additional 18,573 shares in the last quarter. Angeles Wealth Management LLC raised its position in Amgen by 5.4% during the third quarter. Angeles Wealth Management LLC now owns 873 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $281,000 after purchasing an additional 45 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Lansing Street Advisors raised its position in Amgen by 1.3% during the third quarter. Lansing Street Advisors now owns 2,582 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $832,000 after purchasing an additional 32 shares in the last quarter. 76.50% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity at Amgen

In related news, SVP Nancy A. Grygiel sold 1,589 shares of the business’s 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 transaction, the senior vice president now owns 7,210 shares in the company, valued at $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 available at this hyperlink. Also, EVP Jonathan P. Graham sold 25,045 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $293.12, for a total transaction of $7,341,190.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 28,987 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,496,669.44. The trade was 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 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.69% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have commented on AMGN. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and set a $324.00 price objective on shares of Amgen in a research report on Friday, January 24th. Wells Fargo & Company restated an “equal weight” rating on shares of Amgen in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Piper Sandler Companies restated an “overweight” rating and set a $310.00 price objective on shares of Amgen in a research report on Thursday, January 2nd. StockNews.com cut shares of Amgen from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. Finally, Piper Sandler boosted their target price on shares of Amgen from $310.00 to $329.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, February 10th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating, twelve have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $314.09.

Amgen Stock Performance

Shares of Amgen stock opened at $310.78 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $166.95 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 41.16, a P/E/G ratio of 2.63 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 Inc. has a twelve month low of $253.30 and a twelve month high of $346.85. The company’s fifty day moving average is $281.80 and its 200 day moving average is $299.73.

Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The medical research company reported $5.31 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $5.04 by $0.27. Amgen had a net margin of 12.24% and a return on equity of 176.32%. Sell-side analysts forecast that Amgen Inc. will post 20.62 EPS for the current year.

Amgen Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 7th. Investors of record on Friday, February 14th will be issued a $2.38 dividend. This is a positive change from Amgen’s previous quarterly dividend of $2.25. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 14th. This represents a $9.52 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.06%. Amgen’s payout ratio is presently 126.09%.

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.