GAMMA Investing LLC Buys Shares of 3,916 Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN)

GAMMA Investing LLC bought a new stake in Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN) during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm bought 3,916 shares of the medical research company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,231,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in AMGN. International Assets Investment Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Amgen in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $4,589,900,000. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its stake in shares of Amgen by 486.6% in the 4th quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 899,232 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $258,997,000 after acquiring an additional 745,929 shares during the period. abrdn plc raised its stake in shares of Amgen by 150.4% in the 4th 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 during the period. Royal Bank of Canada raised its stake in shares of Amgen by 11.4% in the 3rd quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 5,079,677 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $1,365,213,000 after acquiring an additional 518,689 shares during the period. Finally, California Public Employees Retirement System raised its stake in shares of Amgen by 22.0% in the 4th quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System now owns 2,716,088 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $782,288,000 after acquiring an additional 490,539 shares during the period. 76.50% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages recently weighed in on AMGN. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their target price on shares of Amgen from $313.00 to $350.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 7th. Raymond James began coverage on shares of Amgen in a research note on Thursday, March 28th. They set a “market perform” rating on the stock. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Amgen from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 28th. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $329.00 target price on shares of Amgen in a research note on Wednesday, April 3rd. Finally, TD Cowen cut their target price on shares of Amgen from $370.00 to $360.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 17th. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $296.95.

Amgen Price Performance

NASDAQ:AMGN traded up $1.63 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, hitting $273.54. 2,493,074 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,845,341. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 10.14, a quick ratio of 1.13 and a current ratio of 1.65. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $276.45 and its 200 day simple moving average is $281.56. Amgen Inc. has a 1 year low of $211.71 and a 1 year high of $329.72. The company has a market cap of $146.72 billion, a PE ratio of 21.77, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.50 and a beta of 0.58.

Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 6th. The medical research company reported $4.71 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $4.66 by $0.05. Amgen had a net margin of 23.83% and a return on equity of 154.27%. The company had revenue of $8.20 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.13 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $4.09 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 19.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts expect that Amgen Inc. will post 19.45 EPS for the current year.

Amgen Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 7th. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 17th will be paid 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 3.29%. Amgen’s dividend payout ratio is currently 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.