Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN) Receives $319.68 Consensus PT from Brokerages

Shares of Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN) have received an average recommendation of “Hold” from the twenty-six analysts that are presently covering the firm, MarketBeat reports. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation, twelve have given a hold recommendation, eleven have assigned a buy recommendation and one has issued a strong buy recommendation on the company. The average 1 year target price among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $319.68.

A number of research analysts recently commented on the company. Barclays upped their target price on Amgen from $300.00 to $315.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, October 7th. Wolfe Research assumed coverage on shares of Amgen in a report on Friday, November 15th. They set a “peer perform” rating for the company. Cantor Fitzgerald reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $405.00 target price on shares of Amgen in a research report on Tuesday, October 22nd. UBS Group dropped their price target on shares of Amgen from $335.00 to $326.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, Redburn Partners decreased their price objective on Amgen from $200.00 to $195.00 in a report on Wednesday, November 27th.

Amgen Price Performance

Shares of Amgen stock opened at $270.62 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 7.55, a current ratio of 1.32 and a quick ratio of 0.96. The company has a market cap of $145.47 billion, a PE ratio of 34.65, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.91 and a beta of 0.55. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $302.02 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $314.73. Amgen has a fifty-two week low of $257.80 and a fifty-two week high of $346.85.

Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The medical research company reported $5.58 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $5.11 by $0.47. Amgen had a net margin of 13.00% and a return on equity of 168.35%. The business had revenue of $8.50 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.50 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $4.96 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 23.2% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts expect that Amgen will post 19.53 EPS for the current year.

Amgen Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 7th. Stockholders 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 dividend yield of 3.52%. Amgen’s payout ratio is 115.24%.

Institutional Trading of Amgen

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in AMGN. Pathway Financial Advisers LLC raised its holdings in shares of Amgen by 33,125.4% during the third quarter. Pathway Financial Advisers LLC now owns 4,460,181 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $1,437,115,000 after acquiring an additional 4,446,757 shares during the period. International Assets Investment Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Amgen by 6,812.4% in the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 2,523,387 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $8,130,610,000 after purchasing an additional 2,486,882 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its stake in shares of Amgen by 561.5% in the 3rd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 1,539,733 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $496,117,000 after purchasing an additional 1,306,982 shares during the period. Granite Bay Wealth Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Amgen by 9,058.1% in the second quarter. Granite Bay Wealth Management LLC now owns 756,460 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $223,897,000 after purchasing an additional 748,200 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Janus Henderson Group PLC boosted its position in shares of Amgen by 11.7% during the third 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 period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 76.50% of the company’s stock.

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.