Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) Coverage Initiated at Citigroup

Citigroup initiated coverage on shares of Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) in a report published on Thursday, MarketBeat reports. The firm issued a neutral rating and a $335.00 price target on the medical research company’s stock.

Several other equities analysts have also commented on the stock. William Blair reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Amgen in a research note on Tuesday, November 12th. Robert W. Baird reaffirmed an “underperform” rating and issued a $215.00 target price on shares of Amgen in a research report on Wednesday, September 25th. Bank of America boosted their price target on shares of Amgen from $325.00 to $330.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. StockNews.com raised Amgen from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Finally, UBS Group reduced their target price on Amgen from $335.00 to $326.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, October 31st. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have issued a hold rating, eleven have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $333.57.

Amgen Price Performance

Shares of AMGN opened at $283.61 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 1.32, a quick ratio of 0.96 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 7.55. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $320.85 and its 200-day simple moving average is $318.05. The firm has a market capitalization of $152.45 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.31, a PEG ratio of 2.69 and a beta of 0.60. Amgen has a twelve month low of $260.52 and a twelve month high of $346.85.

Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) last announced its quarterly earnings results 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. The company had revenue of $8.50 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.50 billion. Amgen had a return on equity of 168.35% and a net margin of 13.00%. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $4.96 EPS. Amgen’s revenue for the quarter was up 23.2% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts forecast that Amgen will post 19.51 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Amgen Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 9th. Stockholders of record on Monday, November 18th will be paid a dividend of $2.25 per share. This represents a $9.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.17%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, November 18th. Amgen’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 115.24%.

Institutional Trading of Amgen

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Amgen by 6.2% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 52,088,210 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $14,809,720,000 after purchasing an additional 3,045,657 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its position in Amgen by 1.2% during 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 buying an additional 345,537 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in Amgen by 0.9% in 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 in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Amgen by 2.4% during the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 10,532,629 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $3,393,718,000 after acquiring an additional 251,876 shares during the period. Finally, Capital International Investors boosted its stake in shares of Amgen by 547.8% during the 1st quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 7,005,269 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $1,991,738,000 after acquiring an additional 5,923,915 shares in the last quarter. 76.50% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.