Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN) Announces Quarterly Dividend of $2.38

Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN) announced a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, March 4th, RTT News reports. Investors of record on Friday, May 16th will be given a dividend of 2.38 per share by the medical research company on Friday, June 6th. This represents a $9.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.52%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 16th.

Amgen has raised its dividend by an average of 8.5% annually over the last three years and has raised its dividend annually for the last 14 consecutive years. Amgen has a dividend payout ratio of 44.3% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect Amgen to earn $21.39 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $9.52 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 44.5%.

Amgen Stock Performance

Shares of AMGN stock opened at $270.45 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 9.62, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a current ratio of 1.26. Amgen has a fifty-two week low of $253.30 and a fifty-two week high of $346.85. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $294.29 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $289.08. The company has a market capitalization of $145.42 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.82, a PEG ratio of 2.63 and a beta of 0.51.

Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 1st. The medical research company reported $4.90 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.18 by $0.72. Amgen had a return on equity of 176.32% and a net margin of 12.24%. The firm had revenue of $8.15 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.05 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $3.96 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 9.4% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts expect that Amgen will post 20.62 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity at Amgen

In related news, EVP David M. Reese sold 25,225 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, February 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $304.44, for a total transaction of $7,679,499.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 36,922 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $11,240,533.68. This trade represents a 40.59% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 0.76% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Amgen

A hedge fund recently raised its stake in Amgen stock. Brighton Jones LLC boosted its position in Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN) by 23.5% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 27,468 shares of the medical research company’s stock after purchasing an additional 5,226 shares during the period. Brighton Jones LLC’s holdings in Amgen were worth $7,159,000 as of its most recent SEC filing. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 76.50% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on AMGN shares. StockNews.com cut Amgen from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday. Royal Bank of Canada reduced their target price on Amgen from $324.00 to $320.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, May 2nd. Piper Sandler boosted their target price on Amgen from $310.00 to $329.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, February 10th. Morgan Stanley reissued an “equal weight” rating on shares of Amgen in a research note on Friday, May 2nd. Finally, UBS Group reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $315.00 price objective (down previously from $319.00) on shares of Amgen in a report on Friday, May 2nd. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have assigned a hold rating, ten have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Amgen has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $310.23.

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.