Ameritas Advisory Services LLC Increases Stock Position in Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN)

Ameritas Advisory Services LLC increased its stake in shares of Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN - Free Report) by 62.0% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 10,550 shares of the medical research company's stock after purchasing an additional 4,038 shares during the period. Ameritas Advisory Services LLC's holdings in Amgen were worth $2,750,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Pathway Financial Advisers LLC boosted its position in Amgen by 33,125.4% in the 3rd quarter. Pathway Financial Advisers LLC now owns 4,460,181 shares of the medical research company's stock valued at $1,437,115,000 after buying an additional 4,446,757 shares during the period. International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its position in 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 buying an additional 2,486,882 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its position in 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 buying an additional 1,306,982 shares during the period. Granite Bay Wealth Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Amgen by 9,058.1% in the 2nd 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, Nordea Investment Management AB raised its holdings in shares of Amgen by 40.7% in the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 2,338,665 shares of the medical research company's stock valued at $609,526,000 after purchasing an additional 676,598 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 76.50% of the company's stock.

Amgen Trading Up 1.0 %

AMGN stock traded up $2.68 on Monday, hitting $272.11. 3,244,015 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 3,140,853. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 7.55, a current ratio of 1.32 and a quick ratio of 0.96. Amgen Inc. has a twelve month low of $253.30 and a twelve month high of $346.85. The business's fifty day moving average is $273.95 and its two-hundred day moving average is $307.18. The stock has a market capitalization of $146.27 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.84, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.68 and a beta of 0.56.

Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 30th. The medical research company reported $5.58 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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 company had revenue of $8.50 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.50 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $4.96 earnings per share. Amgen's revenue for the quarter was up 23.2% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts forecast that Amgen Inc. will post 19.57 earnings per share for the current year.

Amgen Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 7th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 14th will be paid a dividend of $2.38 per share. This is an increase from Amgen's previous quarterly dividend of $2.25. This represents a $9.52 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.50%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 14th. Amgen's payout ratio is currently 121.90%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on AMGN. Citigroup reduced their price objective on shares of Amgen from $335.00 to $310.00 in a report on Wednesday, November 27th. UBS Group reduced their price objective on shares of Amgen from $335.00 to $326.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Leerink Partners reduced their price objective on shares of Amgen from $349.00 to $302.00 in a report on Wednesday, November 27th. Bank of America restated an "underperform" rating and issued a $256.00 price objective on shares of Amgen in a report on Tuesday, December 10th. Finally, TD Cowen raised their price objective on shares of Amgen from $381.00 to $383.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Monday, October 21st. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have given a hold rating, thirteen have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Amgen has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $314.91.

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.