Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) Upgraded to “Equal Weight” by Barclays

Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) was upgraded by investment analysts at Barclays from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating in a research report issued on Friday, Briefing.com reports. The firm presently has a $300.00 price target on the medical research company’s stock, up from their prior price target of $230.00. Barclays‘s target price would indicate a potential upside of 7.76% from the stock’s previous close.

AMGN has been the subject of several other research reports. Raymond James began coverage on Amgen in a research report on Thursday, March 28th. They set a “market perform” rating for the company. SVB Leerink downgraded Amgen from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and cut their target price for the stock from $324.00 to $318.00 in a research report on Wednesday, February 7th. Morgan Stanley cut their target price on Amgen from $281.00 to $278.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, February 7th. UBS Group cut their target price on Amgen from $314.00 to $284.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 17th. Finally, Oppenheimer reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $350.00 price target on shares of Amgen in a report on Thursday, February 1st. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $300.90.

Amgen Price Performance

Shares of AMGN stock opened at $278.39 on Friday. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $274.51 and a two-hundred day moving average of $281.33. The company has a current ratio of 1.65, a quick ratio of 1.13 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 10.14. Amgen has a 12 month low of $211.71 and a 12 month high of $329.72. The company has a market capitalization of $149.32 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.29, a P/E/G ratio of 2.65 and a beta of 0.60.

Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 6th. The medical research company reported $4.71 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.66 by $0.05. Amgen had a return on equity of 154.27% and a net margin of 23.83%. The company had revenue of $8.20 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.13 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $4.09 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 19.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts expect that Amgen will post 19.43 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in AMGN. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Amgen during the fourth quarter worth about $1,556,912,000. International Assets Investment Management LLC acquired a new position in Amgen in the fourth quarter valued at $4,589,900,000. Royal Bank of Canada increased its stake in Amgen by 14.8% in the fourth quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 5,831,624 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $1,679,625,000 after purchasing an additional 751,947 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its stake in Amgen by 486.6% in the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 899,232 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $258,997,000 after purchasing an additional 745,929 shares during the period. Finally, abrdn plc boosted its holdings in shares of Amgen by 150.4% in the fourth quarter. abrdn plc now owns 1,043,609 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $300,580,000 after acquiring an additional 626,810 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 76.50% of the company’s stock.

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.