Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) Lifted to Equal Weight at Barclays

Barclays upgraded shares of Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) from an underweight rating to an equal weight rating in a report issued on Friday morning, MarketBeat reports. The firm currently has $300.00 target price on the medical research company’s stock, up from their prior target price of $230.00.

A number of other research firms have also recently weighed in on AMGN. Truist Financial restated a buy rating and issued a $320.00 price target on shares of Amgen in a report on Friday, April 12th. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price objective on Amgen from $313.00 to $350.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a report on Wednesday, February 7th. Morgan Stanley cut their price objective on shares of Amgen from $281.00 to $278.00 and set an equal weight rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, February 7th. William Blair upgraded Amgen from a market perform rating to an outperform rating in a research report on Friday. Finally, Oppenheimer restated an outperform rating and issued a $350.00 price target on shares of Amgen in a research note on Thursday, February 1st. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $305.05.

Amgen Price Performance

Amgen stock opened at $311.29 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 10.14, a current ratio of 1.65 and a quick ratio of 1.13. The stock has a market cap of $166.97 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 44.47, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.01 and a beta of 0.60. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $274.95 and a two-hundred day moving average of $281.46. Amgen has a 1 year low of $211.71 and a 1 year high of $329.72.

Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 2nd. The medical research company reported $3.96 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.76 by $0.20. Amgen had a net margin of 12.74% and a return on equity of 145.62%. The company had revenue of $7.45 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $7.45 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $3.98 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 22.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts forecast that Amgen will post 19.46 earnings per share for the current year.

Amgen Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 7th. Investors of record on Friday, May 17th will be given a $2.25 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 16th. This represents a $9.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.89%. Amgen’s payout ratio is 128.57%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, SVP Nancy A. Grygiel sold 2,117 shares of Amgen stock in a transaction on Friday, May 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $313.09, for a total value of $662,811.53. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 9,883 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,094,268.47. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Corporate insiders own 0.46% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Keener Financial Planning LLC increased its holdings in Amgen by 6.6% during the 1st quarter. Keener Financial Planning LLC now owns 1,041 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $296,000 after purchasing an additional 64 shares during the period. Team Hewins LLC boosted its stake in Amgen by 1.0% during the 1st quarter. Team Hewins LLC now owns 3,894 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $1,107,000 after purchasing an additional 40 shares during the period. Affinity Investment Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Amgen by 56.7% during the first quarter. Affinity Investment Advisors LLC now owns 5,923 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $1,684,000 after buying an additional 2,142 shares during the period. Richardson Financial Services Inc. grew its stake in shares of Amgen by 32.3% in the 1st quarter. Richardson Financial Services Inc. now owns 1,968 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $560,000 after purchasing an additional 480 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Catalina Capital Group LLC grew its position in Amgen by 65.0% in the 1st quarter. Catalina Capital Group LLC now owns 2,000 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $569,000 after buying an additional 788 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other 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.