Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank Has $79.65 Million Holdings in Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN)

Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank grew its stake in Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN) by 62.5% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 276,553 shares of the medical research company’s stock after buying an additional 106,374 shares during the quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank’s holdings in Amgen were worth $79,653,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in AMGN. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Amgen by 83,875.6% in the fourth quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 7,541,011 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $1,980,571,000 after purchasing an additional 7,532,031 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Amgen in the fourth quarter worth $1,351,778,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its position in shares of Amgen by 158.0% in the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 2,950,013 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $774,791,000 after purchasing an additional 1,806,456 shares in the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Amgen in the fourth quarter worth $4,589,900,000. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised its position in Amgen by 12.9% during the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 13,301,365 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $3,493,471,000 after acquiring an additional 1,523,665 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 76.50% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have issued reports on AMGN. Leerink Partnrs lowered shares of Amgen from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 7th. Oppenheimer reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $350.00 price target on shares of Amgen in a research report on Thursday, February 1st. SVB Leerink lowered shares of Amgen from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and dropped their price target for the stock from $324.00 to $318.00 in a research report on Wednesday, February 7th. Daiwa Capital Markets raised shares of Amgen from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $264.00 to $320.00 in a research report on Thursday, December 21st. Finally, Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on shares of Amgen from $281.00 to $278.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, February 7th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $295.30.

Amgen Price Performance

Shares of AMGN traded up $0.13 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, reaching $265.64. The company had a trading volume of 2,011,146 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,871,692. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $279.63 and its 200 day simple moving average is $281.52. Amgen Inc. has a 1-year low of $211.71 and a 1-year high of $329.72. 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 company has a market capitalization of $142.36 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.26, a P/E/G ratio of 2.53 and a beta of 0.58.

Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 6th. The medical research company reported $4.71 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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 the consensus estimate of $8.13 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $4.09 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 19.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts expect that Amgen Inc. will post 19.49 EPS for the current year.

Amgen Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 7th. Investors of record on Friday, May 17th will be issued a $2.25 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 16th. This represents a $9.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.39%. Amgen’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 72.06%.

Amgen Company 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.