Altfest L J & Co. Inc. Lowers Stock Position in Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN)

Altfest L J & Co. Inc. lowered its position in shares of Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN) by 3.0% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 3,816 shares of the medical research company’s stock after selling 117 shares during the period. Altfest L J & Co. Inc.’s holdings in Amgen were worth $1,099,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. OFI Invest Asset Management purchased a new position in shares of Amgen in the 3rd quarter worth about $26,000. Briaud Financial Planning Inc bought a new stake in Amgen in the 3rd quarter worth about $26,000. VisionPoint Advisory Group LLC bought a new stake in Amgen in the 2nd quarter worth about $28,000. Strategic Investment Solutions Inc. IL bought a new stake in Amgen in the 1st quarter worth about $28,000. Finally, Providence Capital Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Amgen in the 3rd quarter worth about $30,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 76.50% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms recently commented on AMGN. Morgan Stanley reduced their price objective on Amgen from $281.00 to $278.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, February 7th. Leerink Partnrs downgraded Amgen from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 7th. Raymond James assumed coverage on Amgen in a research note on Thursday. 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 price target for the company from $324.00 to $318.00 in a research note on Wednesday, February 7th. Finally, Oppenheimer restated an “outperform” rating and set a $350.00 price target on shares of Amgen in a research note on Thursday, February 1st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $295.30.

Amgen Price Performance

NASDAQ AMGN traded down $0.83 during trading hours on Thursday, reaching $285.47. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 689,273 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,014,296. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $290.44 and its 200-day moving average price is $280.66. The company has a quick ratio of 1.13, a current ratio of 1.65 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 10.14. Amgen Inc. has a 1 year low of $211.71 and a 1 year high of $329.72. The company has a market capitalization of $152.99 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.02, a PEG ratio of 2.66 and a beta of 0.58.

Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) last posted its quarterly earnings results 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 for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.13 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $4.09 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 19.8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts predict that Amgen Inc. will post 19.49 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Amgen Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 7th. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 17th will be issued a dividend of $2.25 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 16th. This represents a $9.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.15%. Amgen’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 72.06%.

Amgen Profile

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.