Ritholtz Wealth Management Sells 1,434 Shares of Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN)

Ritholtz Wealth Management lowered its position in shares of Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN - Free Report) by 11.6% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 10,931 shares of the medical research company's stock after selling 1,434 shares during the quarter. Ritholtz Wealth Management's holdings in Amgen were worth $2,849,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of AMGN. Ascent Group LLC lifted its holdings in Amgen by 0.3% in the second quarter. Ascent Group LLC now owns 10,949 shares of the medical research company's stock valued at $3,421,000 after buying an additional 31 shares during the period. Cadinha & Co. LLC increased its position in Amgen by 0.6% in the 3rd quarter. Cadinha & Co. LLC now owns 5,209 shares of the medical research company's stock valued at $1,678,000 after buying an additional 32 shares in the last quarter. Lansing Street Advisors increased its position in Amgen by 1.3% in 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 grew its holdings in shares of Amgen by 3.8% during the third quarter. Unionview LLC now owns 876 shares of the medical research company's stock valued at $282,000 after buying an additional 32 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Traveka Wealth LLC increased its position in shares of Amgen by 4.3% during the third quarter. Traveka Wealth LLC now owns 807 shares of the medical research company's stock worth $260,000 after acquiring an additional 33 shares in the last quarter. 76.50% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on AMGN shares. Truist Financial decreased their price target on Amgen from $333.00 to $298.00 and set a "hold" rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. Leerink Partners reduced their price objective on shares of Amgen from $349.00 to $302.00 in a research report on Wednesday, November 27th. UBS Group cut their price objective on Amgen from $335.00 to $326.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Piper Sandler reduced their target price on shares of Amgen from $344.00 to $310.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, January 2nd. Finally, Citigroup cut their target price on shares of Amgen from $335.00 to $310.00 in a research report on Wednesday, November 27th. 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 assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $314.91.

Amgen Stock Performance

Amgen stock traded up $2.68 during trading on Friday, reaching $272.11. The company had a trading volume of 3,244,015 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,140,853. The firm 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. The company has a current ratio of 1.32, a quick ratio of 0.96 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 7.55. The firm's 50-day simple moving average is $273.95 and its 200 day simple moving average is $307.22. Amgen Inc. has a 52 week low of $253.30 and a 52 week high of $346.85.

Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 30th. The medical research company reported $5.58 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $5.11 by $0.47. Amgen had a return on equity of 168.35% and a net margin of 13.00%. 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 company posted $4.96 EPS. The firm's revenue was up 23.2% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts forecast that Amgen Inc. will post 19.57 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Amgen Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 7th. Stockholders 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 dividend yield of 3.50%. This is an increase 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 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.