Unigestion Holding SA Trims Holdings in Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN)

Unigestion Holding SA lowered its position in shares of Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN - Free Report) by 19.8% in the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 43,784 shares of the medical research company's stock after selling 10,835 shares during the quarter. Unigestion Holding SA's holdings in Amgen were worth $14,108,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Pathway Financial Advisers LLC lifted its stake in Amgen by 33,125.4% in the third 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 raised its position in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 2,486,882 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its stake in Amgen by 561.5% during the 3rd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 1,539,733 shares of the medical research company's stock worth $496,117,000 after acquiring an additional 1,306,982 shares during the last quarter. Granite Bay Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in Amgen by 9,058.1% in the second 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, Janus Henderson Group PLC raised its holdings in 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 worth $1,657,183,000 after purchasing an additional 538,545 shares during the period. 76.50% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

AMGN has been the subject of a number of research reports. Citigroup lowered their target price on Amgen from $335.00 to $310.00 in a research note on Wednesday, November 27th. Wolfe Research assumed coverage on shares of Amgen in a research note on Friday, November 15th. They issued a "peer perform" rating on the stock. Bank of America restated an "underperform" rating and set a $256.00 price objective on shares of Amgen in a research note on Tuesday. Jefferies Financial Group reiterated a "buy" rating and set a $380.00 target price on shares of Amgen in a report on Tuesday, November 12th. Finally, Dbs Bank raised Amgen to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Monday, September 16th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have given a hold rating, eleven have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $319.68.

Amgen Trading Down 0.8 %

Shares of Amgen stock traded down $2.34 on Wednesday, hitting $273.41. 4,491,960 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,615,229. The company has a market capitalization of $146.97 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.83, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.02 and a beta of 0.55. The company has a fifty day moving average of $304.80 and a two-hundred day moving average of $315.45. 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 one year low of $257.80 and a one year high of $346.85.

Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The medical research company reported $5.58 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates 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% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $4.96 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Amgen Inc. will post 19.51 earnings per share for the current year.

Amgen Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 7th. Investors of record on Friday, February 14th will be issued a dividend of $2.38 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 14th. This is a boost from Amgen's previous quarterly dividend of $2.25. This represents a $9.52 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.48%. Amgen's payout ratio is 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.