Short Interest in Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN) Declines By 5.8%

Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN) was the target of a significant decline in short interest in the month of March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totalling 10,470,000 shares, a decline of 5.8% from the March 15th total of 11,110,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 2,920,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 3.6 days. Currently, 2.0% of the shares of the company are sold short.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Amgen

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in Amgen by 0.3% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 49,035,981 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $13,178,910,000 after buying an additional 165,636 shares during the last quarter. Morgan Stanley increased its position in Amgen by 12.9% during the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 13,301,365 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $3,493,471,000 after purchasing an additional 1,523,665 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its stake in Amgen by 1.1% in the 1st quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 8,819,690 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $2,132,778,000 after purchasing an additional 94,565 shares during the last quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Amgen by 83,875.6% in the 4th quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 7,541,011 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $1,980,571,000 after purchasing an additional 7,532,031 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp boosted its stake in shares of Amgen by 3.8% during 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 purchasing an additional 255,463 shares during the last quarter. 76.50% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on AMGN. Morgan Stanley cut their price objective on Amgen from $281.00 to $278.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, February 7th. Raymond James initiated coverage on shares of Amgen in a research note on Thursday, March 28th. They set a “market perform” rating for the company. Daiwa Capital Markets raised shares of Amgen from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $264.00 to $320.00 in a report on Thursday, December 21st. BMO Capital Markets raised shares of Amgen from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their price target for the company from $286.00 to $326.00 in a report on Tuesday, December 19th. Finally, StockNews.com cut Amgen from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, March 28th. Ten 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 company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $295.30.

Amgen Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ AMGN traded down $0.44 during trading hours on Tuesday, reaching $265.07. The stock had a trading volume of 278,897 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,846,376. Amgen has a fifty-two week low of $211.71 and a fifty-two week high of $329.72. The company has a current ratio of 1.65, a quick ratio of 1.13 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 10.14. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $279.63 and a 200-day moving average of $281.52. The firm has a market cap of $142.06 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.26, a PEG ratio of 2.53 and a beta of 0.58.

Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, February 6th. The medical research company reported $4.71 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.66 by $0.05. Amgen had a return on equity of 154.27% and a net margin of 23.83%. The business had revenue of $8.20 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.13 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $4.09 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 19.8% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts predict that Amgen will post 19.49 earnings per share for the current year.

Amgen Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 7th. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 17th will be paid 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 dividend yield of 3.40%. 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.