Empirical Asset Management LLC Buys 3,156 Shares of Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN)

Empirical Asset Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN - Free Report) by 81.3% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 7,040 shares of the medical research company's stock after purchasing an additional 3,156 shares during the quarter. Empirical Asset Management LLC's holdings in Amgen were worth $1,835,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in AMGN. State Street Corp increased its stake in shares of Amgen by 1.2% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 29,317,018 shares of the medical research company's stock worth $9,446,236,000 after purchasing an additional 345,537 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Amgen by 0.9% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 12,122,889 shares of the medical research company's stock worth $3,893,771,000 after buying an additional 103,851 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of Amgen by 2.4% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 10,532,629 shares of the medical research company's stock valued at $3,393,718,000 after acquiring an additional 251,876 shares during the period. Janus Henderson Group PLC grew its stake in shares of Amgen by 11.7% in the third quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 5,143,330 shares of the medical research company's stock valued at $1,657,183,000 after acquiring an additional 538,545 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Pathway Financial Advisers LLC increased its position in Amgen by 33,125.4% during the third quarter. Pathway Financial Advisers LLC now owns 4,460,181 shares of the medical research company's stock worth $1,437,115,000 after acquiring an additional 4,446,757 shares during the period. 76.50% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

AMGN has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Leerink Partners dropped their price target on Amgen from $349.00 to $302.00 in a research note on Wednesday, November 27th. Redburn Partners dropped their target price on Amgen from $200.00 to $195.00 in a research report on Wednesday, November 27th. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price objective on shares of Amgen from $335.00 to $280.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, January 10th. Robert W. Baird restated an "underperform" rating and set a $215.00 price target on shares of Amgen in a report on Wednesday, September 25th. Finally, Piper Sandler Companies restated an "overweight" rating and set a $310.00 target price on shares of Amgen in a research report on Thursday, January 2nd. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have issued a hold rating, thirteen have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $314.91.

Amgen Stock Performance

NASDAQ:AMGN traded up $2.68 on Friday, hitting $272.11. The stock had a trading volume of 3,244,015 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,140,853. The business's 50-day simple moving average is $273.95 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $307.22. The stock has a market cap 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 Inc. has a 52-week low of $253.30 and a 52-week high of $346.85. The company has a quick ratio of 0.96, a current ratio of 1.32 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 7.55.

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

Amgen Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 7th. Investors of record on Friday, February 14th will be given a $2.38 dividend. 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 dividend yield of 3.50%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 14th. Amgen's payout ratio is currently 115.24%.

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.