Meridian Wealth Management LLC Buys Shares of 15,846 Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN)

Meridian Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN) during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 15,846 shares of the medical research company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,106,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in AMGN. Pathway Financial Advisers LLC grew its stake in Amgen by 33,125.4% during the 3rd quarter. Pathway Financial Advisers LLC now owns 4,460,181 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $1,437,115,000 after buying an additional 4,446,757 shares during the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Amgen by 6,812.4% in the third 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 buying an additional 2,486,882 shares during the period. Janus Henderson Group PLC lifted its holdings in shares of Amgen by 137.1% in the first quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 2,381,133 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $676,984,000 after buying an additional 1,377,007 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its holdings in shares of Amgen by 561.5% in the third quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 1,539,733 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $496,117,000 after buying an additional 1,306,982 shares during the period. Finally, Granite Bay Wealth Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of 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 buying an additional 748,200 shares during the period. 76.50% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Barclays upped their price objective on Amgen from $300.00 to $315.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, October 7th. Wolfe Research assumed coverage on Amgen in a report on Friday, November 15th. They issued a “peer perform” rating for the company. Truist Financial lowered Amgen from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $320.00 to $333.00 in a report on Monday, October 14th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft restated a “hold” rating and issued a $305.00 price objective (down previously from $310.00) on shares of Amgen in a report on Wednesday, August 7th. Finally, Citigroup started coverage on Amgen in a report on Thursday, November 14th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $335.00 price objective for the company. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have given a hold rating, eleven have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Amgen currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $333.57.

Amgen Stock Performance

AMGN stock opened at $289.90 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 7.55, a current ratio of 1.32 and a quick ratio of 0.96. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $317.28 and a 200 day moving average price of $318.02. The stock has a market capitalization of $155.83 billion, a PE ratio of 37.10, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.50 and a beta of 0.60. Amgen Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $260.68 and a fifty-two week high of $346.85.

Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The medical research company reported $5.58 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $5.11 by $0.47. Amgen had a net margin of 13.00% and a return on equity of 168.35%. The firm had revenue of $8.50 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.50 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $4.96 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 23.2% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts forecast that Amgen Inc. will post 19.51 EPS for the current year.

Amgen Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 9th. Shareholders of record on Monday, November 18th will be given a dividend of $2.25 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, November 18th. This represents a $9.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.10%. Amgen’s payout ratio is presently 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.