Weaver C. Barksdale & Associates Inc. Sells 1,887 Shares of Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN)

Weaver C. Barksdale & Associates Inc. lessened its stake in shares of Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN) by 20.4% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 7,380 shares of the medical research company’s stock after selling 1,887 shares during the quarter. Amgen makes up 2.1% of Weaver C. Barksdale & Associates Inc.’s holdings, making the stock its 13th biggest holding. Weaver C. Barksdale & Associates Inc.’s holdings in Amgen were worth $2,125,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Morningstar Investment Services LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Amgen by 96.4% during the fourth quarter. Morningstar Investment Services LLC now owns 236,026 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $68,084,000 after purchasing an additional 115,879 shares during the period. Stephens Inc. AR lifted its holdings in shares of Amgen by 0.6% during the fourth quarter. Stephens Inc. AR now owns 50,025 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $14,408,000 after purchasing an additional 275 shares during the period. First National Bank of Omaha lifted its holdings in shares of Amgen by 28.6% during the fourth quarter. First National Bank of Omaha now owns 32,890 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $9,473,000 after purchasing an additional 7,315 shares during the period. Pinnacle West Asset Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Amgen by 5.1% during the fourth quarter. Pinnacle West Asset Management Inc. now owns 9,670 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $2,785,000 after purchasing an additional 465 shares during the period. Finally, Exencial Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Amgen by 4.6% during the fourth quarter. Exencial Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 19,676 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $5,667,000 after purchasing an additional 869 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 76.50% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently commented on AMGN. SVB Leerink lowered shares of 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 report on Wednesday, February 7th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Amgen from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, March 28th. Morgan Stanley dropped their target price on shares of Amgen from $281.00 to $278.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock 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. Finally, Raymond James initiated coverage on shares of Amgen in a report on Thursday, March 28th. They issued a “market perform” rating on the stock. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $297.40.

Amgen Stock Up 0.4 %

Shares of NASDAQ AMGN traded up $1.02 during midday trading on Thursday, hitting $278.39. 2,640,394 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,813,400. The company has a market cap of $149.32 billion, a PE ratio of 22.29, a P/E/G ratio of 2.65 and a beta of 0.60. Amgen Inc. has a one year low of $211.71 and a one year high of $329.72. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $274.51 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $281.33. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 10.14, a quick ratio of 1.13 and a current ratio of 1.65.

Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, February 6th. The medical research company reported $4.71 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.66 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $8.20 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.13 billion. Amgen had a return on equity of 154.27% and a net margin of 23.83%. Amgen’s quarterly revenue was up 19.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $4.09 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts predict that Amgen Inc. will post 19.43 EPS for the current year.

Amgen Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced 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. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 16th. This represents a $9.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.23%. Amgen’s payout ratio 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.