Vantage Wealth Has $17.41 Million Holdings in Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN)

Vantage Wealth grew its holdings in Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN) by 0.5% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 66,801 shares of the medical research company’s stock after acquiring an additional 352 shares during the period. Amgen makes up 3.8% of Vantage Wealth’s portfolio, making the stock its 18th biggest position. Vantage Wealth’s holdings in Amgen were worth $17,411,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the business. State Street Corp grew its holdings in Amgen by 1.2% during 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 acquiring an additional 345,537 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in Amgen by 0.9% during the 3rd 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 period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in Amgen by 2.4% during the 3rd 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 during the period. Janus Henderson Group PLC raised its holdings in Amgen by 11.7% during the 3rd quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 5,143,330 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $1,657,183,000 after buying an additional 538,545 shares during the period. Finally, Pathway Financial Advisers LLC raised its holdings in shares of Amgen by 33,125.4% in 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 purchasing an additional 4,446,757 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 76.50% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on AMGN. Piper Sandler lowered their price objective on shares of Amgen from $344.00 to $310.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, January 2nd. William Blair reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Amgen in a report on Tuesday, November 12th. Citigroup decreased their target price on shares of Amgen from $335.00 to $310.00 in a research note on Wednesday, November 27th. Bank of America reissued an “underperform” rating and issued a $256.00 target price on shares of Amgen in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $324.00 target price on shares of Amgen in a research note on Friday. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have issued a hold rating, thirteen have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $314.65.

Amgen Stock Down 0.9 %

Shares of NASDAQ AMGN opened at $275.42 on Friday. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $271.39 and a 200 day simple moving average of $305.99. The firm has a market cap of $148.05 billion, a PE ratio of 35.27, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.78 and a beta of 0.56. Amgen Inc. has a 1 year low of $253.30 and a 1 year high of $346.85. 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 quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 30th. The medical research company reported $5.58 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.11 by $0.47. Amgen had a net margin of 13.00% and a return on equity of 168.35%. The business had revenue of $8.50 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.50 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $4.96 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 23.2% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts forecast that Amgen Inc. will post 19.56 EPS for the current year.

Amgen Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 7th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 14th will be issued a dividend of $2.38 per share. This is a positive change from Amgen’s previous quarterly dividend of $2.25. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 14th. This represents a $9.52 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.46%. Amgen’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 115.24%.

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.