Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN) Shares Sold by Argent Capital Management LLC

Argent Capital Management LLC lowered its stake in Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN - Free Report) by 66.6% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 31,173 shares of the medical research company's stock after selling 62,137 shares during the quarter. Argent Capital Management LLC's holdings in Amgen were worth $8,125,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Ascent Group LLC raised its stake in Amgen by 0.3% during the second quarter. Ascent Group LLC now owns 10,949 shares of the medical research company's stock valued at $3,421,000 after purchasing an additional 31 shares in the last quarter. Cadinha & Co. LLC increased its holdings in shares of Amgen by 0.6% in the 3rd quarter. Cadinha & Co. LLC now owns 5,209 shares of the medical research company's stock worth $1,678,000 after buying an additional 32 shares during the last quarter. Lansing Street Advisors raised its position in shares of Amgen by 1.3% during the 3rd quarter. Lansing Street Advisors now owns 2,582 shares of the medical research company's stock valued at $832,000 after buying an additional 32 shares in the last quarter. Unionview LLC raised its position in shares of Amgen by 3.8% during the 3rd quarter. Unionview LLC now owns 876 shares of the medical research company's stock valued at $282,000 after buying an additional 32 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Traveka Wealth LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Amgen by 4.3% in the 3rd quarter. Traveka Wealth LLC now owns 807 shares of the medical research company's stock valued at $260,000 after acquiring an additional 33 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 76.50% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have weighed in on AMGN. Jefferies Financial Group reissued a "buy" rating and set a $380.00 price objective on shares of Amgen in a research note on Tuesday, November 12th. StockNews.com downgraded Amgen from a "strong-buy" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 18th. Barclays increased their price target on Amgen from $300.00 to $315.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a report on Monday, October 7th. Truist Financial dropped their price objective on shares of Amgen from $333.00 to $298.00 and set a "hold" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reduced their target price on shares of Amgen from $360.00 to $330.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, November 27th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have issued a hold rating, thirteen have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $314.91.

Amgen Stock Performance

AMGN traded up $0.49 during trading on Thursday, reaching $269.43. 2,631,796 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 3,100,128. The company's fifty day simple moving average is $276.06 and its 200-day simple moving average is $307.76. The stock has a market capitalization of $144.83 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.50, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.68 and a beta of 0.56. 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 1 year low of $253.30 and a 1 year high of $346.85.

Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The medical research company reported $5.58 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%. The firm's revenue was up 23.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $4.96 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts predict that Amgen Inc. will post 19.57 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Amgen Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 7th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 14th will be issued a $2.38 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 14th. This is an increase from Amgen's previous quarterly dividend of $2.25. This represents a $9.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.53%. Amgen's payout ratio 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.