Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) Stock Rating Lowered by StockNews.com

Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) was downgraded by research analysts at StockNews.com from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report released on Wednesday.

Other equities analysts have also recently issued research reports about the company. Robert W. Baird restated an “underperform” rating and set a $215.00 target price on shares of Amgen in a report on Wednesday, September 25th. Sanford C. Bernstein initiated coverage on shares of Amgen in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $380.00 price objective on the stock. Bank of America reaffirmed an “underperform” rating and issued a $256.00 target price on shares of Amgen in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. Cantor Fitzgerald reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $405.00 price target on shares of Amgen in a research report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Finally, Dbs Bank raised shares of Amgen to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, September 16th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have issued a hold rating, twelve have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $319.68.

Amgen Trading Up 0.9 %

AMGN opened at $261.19 on Wednesday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $297.50 and a 200 day simple moving average of $313.58. Amgen has a fifty-two week low of $253.30 and a fifty-two week high of $346.85. The company has a market cap of $140.40 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.44, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.91 and a beta of 0.55. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 7.55, a current ratio of 1.32 and a quick ratio of 0.96.

Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The medical research company reported $5.58 EPS 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 company had revenue of $8.50 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.50 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $4.96 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 23.2% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Amgen will post 19.53 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Lantz Financial LLC lifted its stake in Amgen by 5.1% in the second quarter. Lantz Financial LLC now owns 1,779 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $556,000 after acquiring an additional 87 shares during the last quarter. Griffin Asset Management Inc. lifted its stake in Amgen by 5.0% in the 2nd quarter. Griffin Asset Management Inc. now owns 957 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $299,000 after purchasing an additional 46 shares during the last quarter. 1620 Investment Advisors Inc. bought a new position in Amgen during the second quarter worth about $107,000. Hennessy Advisors Inc. increased its position in Amgen by 0.8% during the second quarter. Hennessy Advisors Inc. now owns 13,300 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $4,156,000 after buying an additional 100 shares during the last quarter. Finally, JB Capital LLC increased its position in Amgen by 1,212.2% during the second quarter. JB Capital LLC now owns 10,576 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $3,305,000 after buying an additional 9,770 shares during the last quarter. 76.50% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.