ARS Wealth Advisors Group LLC Sells 1,616 Shares of Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN)

ARS Wealth Advisors Group LLC decreased its position in Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN) by 25.9% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 4,629 shares of the medical research company’s stock after selling 1,616 shares during the period. ARS Wealth Advisors Group LLC’s holdings in Amgen were worth $1,333,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in Amgen by 0.3% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 49,035,981 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $13,178,910,000 after acquiring an additional 165,636 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp increased its holdings in shares of Amgen by 3.8% in the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 6,977,625 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $1,875,306,000 after purchasing an additional 255,463 shares during the period. Royal Bank of Canada raised its stake in shares of Amgen by 11.4% in the third quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 5,079,677 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $1,365,213,000 after purchasing an additional 518,689 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. lifted its holdings in shares of Amgen by 15.9% during the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 3,356,359 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $902,055,000 after purchasing an additional 459,340 shares during the period. Finally, California Public Employees Retirement System lifted its stake in Amgen by 22.0% during 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. Institutional investors own 76.50% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Amgen news, SVP Nancy A. Grygiel sold 2,117 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $313.09, for a total transaction of $662,811.53. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 9,883 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,094,268.47. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 0.46% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

AMGN has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. UBS Group increased their target price on shares of Amgen from $284.00 to $307.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday. Raymond James assumed coverage on shares of Amgen in a research note on Thursday, March 28th. They set a “market perform” rating for the company. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price target on Amgen from $313.00 to $350.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 7th. SVB Leerink downgraded Amgen from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and reduced their price objective for the stock from $324.00 to $318.00 in a research report on Wednesday, February 7th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded Amgen from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Amgen currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $305.05.

Amgen Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:AMGN traded up $32.90 during trading on Friday, reaching $311.29. The company had a trading volume of 9,644,682 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,279,398. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 10.14, a current ratio of 1.65 and a quick ratio of 1.13. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $274.95 and its 200 day moving average price is $281.50. Amgen Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $211.71 and a fifty-two week high of $329.72. The firm has a market capitalization of $166.97 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 44.47, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.01 and a beta of 0.60.

Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 2nd. The medical research company reported $3.96 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.76 by $0.20. Amgen had a net margin of 12.74% and a return on equity of 145.62%. The company had revenue of $7.45 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $7.45 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $3.98 EPS. Amgen’s quarterly revenue was up 22.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Amgen Inc. will post 19.46 EPS for the current year.

Amgen Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 7th. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 17th will be issued a $2.25 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 16th. This represents a $9.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.89%. Amgen’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 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.