Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) Now Covered by Analysts at Wolfe Research

Wolfe Research started coverage on shares of Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) in a research note released on Friday morning, Marketbeat reports. The firm issued a peer perform rating on the medical research company’s stock.

A number of other research firms have also recently issued reports on AMGN. StockNews.com raised shares of Amgen from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Wells Fargo & Company cut shares of Amgen from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $320.00 to $335.00 in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $362.00 price objective on shares of Amgen in a research report on Thursday, September 26th. Robert W. Baird reissued an “underperform” rating and set a $215.00 price objective on shares of Amgen in a research report on Wednesday, September 25th. Finally, William Blair reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Amgen in a research report on Tuesday, November 12th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have assigned a hold rating, eleven have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $333.57.

Amgen Stock Performance

NASDAQ AMGN opened at $278.76 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $149.84 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.69, a PEG ratio of 2.53 and a beta of 0.60. Amgen has a twelve month low of $260.52 and a twelve month high of $346.85. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $319.90 and a 200 day simple moving average of $318.65. The company has a quick ratio of 0.96, a current ratio of 1.32 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 7.55.

Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The medical research company reported $5.58 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.11 by $0.47. Amgen had a return on equity of 168.35% and a net margin of 13.00%. The firm had revenue of $8.50 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.50 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $4.96 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 23.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts expect that Amgen will post 19.51 EPS for the current year.

Amgen Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 9th. Investors of record on Monday, November 18th will be given a dividend of $2.25 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, November 18th. This represents a $9.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.23%. Amgen’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 115.24%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. State Street Corp increased its holdings 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 valued at $9,446,236,000 after buying an additional 345,537 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in 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% during the third 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 buying an additional 251,876 shares during the last quarter. Capital International Investors increased its holdings in Amgen by 547.8% during the first quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 7,005,269 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $1,991,738,000 after buying an additional 5,923,915 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Janus Henderson Group PLC increased its holdings in 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 valued at $1,657,183,000 after buying an additional 538,545 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors 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.