Forza Wealth Management LLC Trims Stock Position in Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN)

Forza Wealth Management LLC reduced its stake in Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN) by 0.8% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 5,834 shares of the medical research company’s stock after selling 50 shares during the quarter. Forza Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Amgen were worth $1,659,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the stock. American Financial Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Amgen by 25.3% in the first quarter. American Financial Advisors LLC now owns 1,505 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $428,000 after acquiring an additional 304 shares in the last quarter. Legacy CG LLC boosted its holdings in Amgen by 0.4% in the 1st quarter. Legacy CG LLC now owns 22,234 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $6,322,000 after purchasing an additional 82 shares in the last quarter. PFG Investments LLC boosted its holdings in Amgen by 222.3% in the 1st quarter. PFG Investments LLC now owns 6,497 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $1,847,000 after purchasing an additional 4,481 shares in the last quarter. Altfest L J & Co. Inc. increased its position in Amgen by 26.4% during the 1st quarter. Altfest L J & Co. Inc. now owns 4,822 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $1,371,000 after purchasing an additional 1,006 shares during the period. Finally, MBL Wealth LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Amgen in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $341,000. 76.50% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

AMGN has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Morgan Stanley reduced 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. SVB Leerink downgraded Amgen from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and cut their price target for the stock from $324.00 to $318.00 in a research note on Wednesday, February 7th. Leerink Partnrs cut shares of Amgen from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 7th. TD Cowen cut their target price on shares of Amgen from $370.00 to $360.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 17th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price target on shares of Amgen from $313.00 to $350.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 7th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Amgen has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $297.40.

Amgen Trading Up 2.4 %

AMGN stock traded up $6.40 on Monday, hitting $276.38. 2,678,923 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,820,901. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 10.14, a current ratio of 1.65 and a quick ratio of 1.13. The stock has a market capitalization of $148.24 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.13, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.61 and a beta of 0.58. Amgen Inc. has a twelve month low of $211.71 and a twelve month high of $329.72. The business’s fifty day moving average is $274.96 and its two-hundred day moving average is $281.45.

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

Amgen Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 7th. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 17th will be given a dividend of $2.25 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 16th. This represents a $9.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.26%. Amgen’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 72.06%.

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.