Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN) Shares Sold by Gateway Investment Advisers LLC

Gateway Investment Advisers LLC lessened its stake in shares of Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN - Free Report) by 2.4% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 141,273 shares of the medical research company's stock after selling 3,458 shares during the period. Gateway Investment Advisers LLC's holdings in Amgen were worth $36,821,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Capital Performance Advisors LLP purchased a new stake in Amgen during the third quarter valued at $25,000. Legacy Investment Solutions LLC bought a new stake in shares of Amgen in the 3rd quarter worth about $29,000. Hershey Financial Advisers LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Amgen during the 2nd quarter valued at about $30,000. Matrix Trust Co bought a new position in shares of Amgen in the 3rd quarter valued at about $36,000. Finally, Livelsberger Financial Advisory bought a new position in shares of Amgen in the 3rd quarter valued at about $56,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 76.50% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have weighed in on AMGN shares. Royal Bank of Canada reduced their price objective on Amgen from $360.00 to $330.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, November 27th. Sanford C. Bernstein assumed coverage on Amgen in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. They set an "outperform" rating and a $380.00 target price on the stock. Citigroup lowered their price target on Amgen from $335.00 to $310.00 in a research report on Wednesday, November 27th. Leerink Partners dropped their price objective on shares of Amgen from $349.00 to $302.00 in a research note on Wednesday, November 27th. Finally, Barclays increased their target price on shares of Amgen from $300.00 to $315.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Monday, October 7th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have assigned a hold rating, thirteen have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $314.91.

Amgen Stock Up 0.2 %

NASDAQ AMGN traded up $0.49 during trading on Thursday, reaching $269.43. 2,684,349 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 3,105,385. Amgen Inc. has a 12-month low of $253.30 and a 12-month high of $346.85. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 7.55, a current ratio of 1.32 and a quick ratio of 0.96. The firm has a market cap of $144.83 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.50, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.68 and a beta of 0.56. The company's 50 day simple moving average is $276.06 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $307.76.

Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 30th. The medical research company reported $5.58 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $5.11 by $0.47. The company had revenue of $8.50 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.50 billion. Amgen had a net margin of 13.00% and a return on equity of 168.35%. Amgen's revenue was up 23.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted $4.96 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Amgen Inc. will post 19.57 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Amgen Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed 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. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 14th. This represents a $9.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.53%. This is an increase from Amgen's previous quarterly dividend of $2.25. Amgen's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 115.24%.

Amgen 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.