Decker Retirement Planning Inc. Acquires New Stake in Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN)

Decker Retirement Planning Inc. bought a new position in Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN) during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor bought 450 shares of the medical research company’s stock, valued at approximately $117,000.

Other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. State Street Corp boosted its stake in Amgen by 1.2% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 29,317,018 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $9,446,236,000 after purchasing an additional 345,537 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in Amgen by 0.9% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 12,122,889 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $3,893,771,000 after buying an additional 103,851 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Amgen by 2.4% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 10,532,629 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $3,393,718,000 after buying an additional 251,876 shares in the last quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC grew its holdings in shares of Amgen by 11.7% during the third quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 5,143,330 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $1,657,183,000 after buying an additional 538,545 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Pathway Financial Advisers LLC increased its position in shares of Amgen by 33,125.4% during the third quarter. Pathway Financial Advisers LLC now owns 4,460,181 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $1,437,115,000 after acquiring an additional 4,446,757 shares in the last quarter. 76.50% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms recently issued reports on AMGN. Sanford C. Bernstein assumed coverage on Amgen in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $380.00 price objective on the stock. Jefferies Financial Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $380.00 price target on shares of Amgen in a report on Tuesday, November 12th. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price objective on Amgen from $335.00 to $280.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, January 10th. Citigroup decreased their target price on Amgen from $335.00 to $310.00 in a research report on Wednesday, November 27th. Finally, William Blair reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Amgen in a report on Tuesday, November 12th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have issued a hold rating, thirteen have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Amgen currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $314.91.

Amgen Price Performance

Shares of Amgen stock opened at $269.43 on Friday. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $276.06 and a 200-day moving average price of $307.76. Amgen Inc. has a one year low of $253.30 and a one year high of $346.85. The stock has a market cap of $144.83 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.50, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.68 and a beta of 0.56. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 7.55, a quick ratio of 0.96 and a current ratio of 1.32.

Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) last issued its quarterly 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 for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.50 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $4.96 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 23.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts expect that Amgen Inc. will post 19.57 EPS for the current year.

Amgen Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 7th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 14th will be given a $2.38 dividend. This represents a $9.52 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.53%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 14th. This is an increase from Amgen’s previous quarterly dividend of $2.25. Amgen’s dividend payout ratio is 115.24%.

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.