Meridian Wealth Partners LLC Takes Position in Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN)

Meridian Wealth Partners LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund acquired 751 shares of the medical research company’s stock, valued at approximately $216,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of AMGN. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in Amgen by 0.3% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 49,035,981 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $13,178,910,000 after buying an additional 165,636 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp grew its stake in Amgen by 3.8% in the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 6,977,625 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $1,875,306,000 after buying an additional 255,463 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its stake in Amgen by 1.1% in the third quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 5,437,182 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $1,461,297,000 after acquiring an additional 61,528 shares during the last quarter. Royal Bank of Canada raised its holdings in shares of Amgen by 11.4% during the 3rd quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 5,079,677 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $1,365,213,000 after buying an additional 518,689 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. lifted its holdings in shares of Amgen by 15.9% in the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 3,356,359 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $902,055,000 after acquiring an additional 459,340 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 76.50% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on the company. Morgan Stanley dropped their target price on Amgen from $281.00 to $278.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, February 7th. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $329.00 target price on shares of Amgen in a report on Wednesday, April 3rd. Oppenheimer reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $350.00 target price on shares of Amgen in a research note on Thursday, February 1st. UBS Group dropped their price target on shares of Amgen from $314.00 to $284.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 17th. Finally, Raymond James initiated coverage on shares of Amgen in a research report on Thursday, March 28th. They issued a “market perform” rating on the stock. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Amgen has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $296.95.

Amgen Stock Up 0.2 %

Amgen stock traded up $0.60 on Friday, hitting $269.98. 2,436,959 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,035,139. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $275.10 and its 200 day simple moving average is $281.52. The firm has a market cap of $144.81 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.62, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.61 and a beta of 0.58. The company has a current ratio of 1.65, a quick ratio of 1.13 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 10.14. Amgen Inc. has a 1 year low of $211.71 and a 1 year high of $329.72.

Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 6th. The medical research company reported $4.71 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $4.66 by $0.05. Amgen had a net margin of 23.83% and a return on equity of 154.27%. The business had revenue of $8.20 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.13 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $4.09 earnings per share. Amgen’s quarterly revenue was up 19.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Amgen Inc. will post 19.43 earnings per share for the current year.

Amgen Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 7th. Investors of record on Friday, May 17th will be given a dividend of $2.25 per share. This represents a $9.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.33%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 16th. Amgen’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 72.06%.

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.