Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. Purchases 2,672,975 Shares of Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN)

Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN) by 25.4% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 13,205,604 shares of the medical research company’s stock after acquiring an additional 2,672,975 shares during the quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. owned approximately 2.46% of Amgen worth $3,441,909,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in AMGN. Capital Performance Advisors LLP bought a new position in shares of Amgen during the 3rd quarter worth $25,000. Centricity Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Amgen during the 4th quarter worth $25,000. Legacy Investment Solutions LLC bought a new position in shares of Amgen during the 3rd quarter worth $29,000. Heck Capital Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Amgen during the 4th quarter worth about $36,000. Finally, PrairieView Partners LLC lifted its holdings in Amgen by 118.3% during the 4th quarter. PrairieView Partners LLC now owns 179 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $46,000 after purchasing an additional 97 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 76.50% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts recently issued reports on AMGN shares. Redburn Partners dropped their price objective on Amgen from $200.00 to $195.00 in a report on Wednesday, November 27th. UBS Group reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Amgen in a report on Wednesday, February 12th. Bank of America increased their price objective on Amgen from $256.00 to $275.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a report on Thursday, February 6th. Wells Fargo & Company reissued an “equal weight” rating on shares of Amgen in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. Finally, Citigroup reissued a “neutral” rating on shares of Amgen in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating, twelve have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Amgen currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $314.09.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, EVP David M. Reese sold 25,225 shares of Amgen stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $304.44, for a total value of $7,679,499.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 36,922 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,240,533.68. This trade represents a 40.59 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, SVP Nancy A. Grygiel sold 1,589 shares of Amgen stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $304.47, for a total value of $483,802.83. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 7,210 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,195,228.70. This represents a 18.06 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 69,341 shares of company stock worth $20,644,335 in the last ninety days. 0.69% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Amgen Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ AMGN opened at $310.78 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $166.95 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 41.16, a P/E/G ratio of 2.63 and a beta of 0.56. The company has a current ratio of 1.26, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 9.62. Amgen Inc. has a 1-year low of $253.30 and a 1-year high of $346.85. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $281.80 and its 200 day moving average is $299.73.

Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The medical research company reported $5.31 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $5.04 by $0.27. Amgen had a return on equity of 176.32% and a net margin of 12.24%. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Amgen Inc. will post 20.62 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Amgen Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 7th. Investors of record on Friday, February 14th will be given a dividend of $2.38 per share. This represents a $9.52 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.06%. This is a positive change from Amgen’s previous quarterly dividend of $2.25. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 14th. Amgen’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 126.09%.

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.