iA Global Asset Management Inc. Boosts Position in Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN)

iA Global Asset Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN) by 0.4% during the second quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 52,697 shares of the medical research company’s stock after purchasing an additional 214 shares during the period. iA Global Asset Management Inc.’s holdings in Amgen were worth $16,465,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Atlas Capital Advisors LLC lifted its position in Amgen by 383.0% in the second quarter. Atlas Capital Advisors LLC now owns 6,670 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $2,084,000 after acquiring an additional 5,289 shares during the last quarter. Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH increased its position in shares of Amgen by 3,222.3% during the second quarter. Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH now owns 65,748 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $20,543,000 after purchasing an additional 63,769 shares in the last quarter. Lee Danner & Bass Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Amgen in the 2nd quarter valued at about $7,297,000. Azzad Asset Management Inc. ADV purchased a new position in Amgen during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $1,924,000. Finally, Signaturefd LLC increased its position in Amgen by 4.1% during the second quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 14,246 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $4,451,000 after buying an additional 563 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 76.50% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have recently weighed in on AMGN. TD Cowen increased their price objective on Amgen from $360.00 to $381.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 7th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered shares of Amgen from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $320.00 to $335.00 in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. StockNews.com raised shares of Amgen from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, May 3rd. William Blair raised Amgen from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, May 3rd. Finally, Barclays upgraded Amgen from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $230.00 to $300.00 in a research report on Friday, May 3rd. Eleven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $326.89.

Amgen Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ AMGN traded up $2.82 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $333.83. The company had a trading volume of 2,173,377 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,554,402. The firm has a market capitalization of $179.08 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 47.69, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.78 and a beta of 0.58. Amgen Inc. has a twelve month low of $248.38 and a twelve month high of $346.85. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $324.48 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $300.43. The company has a quick ratio of 0.98, a current ratio of 1.42 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 11.96.

Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, August 6th. The medical research company reported $4.97 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.01 by ($0.04). The company had revenue of $8.39 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.35 billion. Amgen had a net margin of 12.74% and a return on equity of 156.21%. Amgen’s revenue was up 20.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $5.00 earnings per share. Equities research analysts anticipate that Amgen Inc. will post 19.5 earnings per share for the current year.

Amgen Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, August 6th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 16th were issued a $2.25 dividend. This represents a $9.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.70%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 16th. Amgen’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 128.57%.

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.