Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN) Receives Consensus Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts

Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN) has been given an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by the twenty-four analysts that are covering the stock, MarketBeat.com reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, eleven have assigned a hold recommendation, eleven have given a buy recommendation and one has given a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 12 month price target among brokerages that have covered the stock in the last year is $325.55.

Several equities analysts have weighed in on AMGN shares. Bank of America lifted their target price on Amgen from $325.00 to $330.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. TD Cowen lifted their price target on Amgen from $360.00 to $381.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 7th. Argus boosted their target price on Amgen from $300.00 to $340.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, June 27th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered Amgen from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $320.00 to $335.00 in a report on Wednesday, August 7th. Finally, Oppenheimer reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $380.00 price objective on shares of Amgen in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th.

Institutional Trading of Amgen

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Capital International Investors increased its holdings in Amgen by 547.8% in the 1st quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 7,005,269 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $1,991,738,000 after buying an additional 5,923,915 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in Amgen by 6.2% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 52,088,210 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $14,809,720,000 after buying an additional 3,045,657 shares during the period. Janus Henderson Group PLC increased its holdings in Amgen by 137.1% in the 1st 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. Capital Wealth Planning LLC increased its holdings in Amgen by 28,684.1% in the 1st quarter. Capital Wealth Planning LLC now owns 833,300 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $236,924,000 after buying an additional 830,405 shares during the period. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada increased its holdings in Amgen by 14.8% in the 4th 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 buying an additional 751,947 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 76.50% of the company’s stock.

Amgen Stock Performance

AMGN stock opened at $319.73 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 9.64, a quick ratio of 0.89 and a current ratio of 1.26. The stock has a market capitalization of $171.51 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 45.68, a PEG ratio of 2.98 and a beta of 0.61. Amgen has a 1 year low of $249.70 and a 1 year high of $346.85. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $327.92 and its two-hundred day moving average is $308.56.

Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, August 6th. The medical research company reported $4.97 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $5.01 by ($0.04). Amgen had a return on equity of 161.72% and a net margin of 10.12%. The business had revenue of $8.39 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.35 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $5.00 earnings per share. Amgen’s revenue was up 20.1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts predict that Amgen will post 19.49 EPS for the current year.

Amgen Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, August 6th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 16th were paid a $2.25 dividend. This represents a $9.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.81%. 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.