Banque Cantonale Vaudoise Sells 11,574 Shares of Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN)

Banque Cantonale Vaudoise lowered its position in Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN) by 35.4% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 21,142 shares of the medical research company’s stock after selling 11,574 shares during the period. Banque Cantonale Vaudoise’s holdings in Amgen were worth $6,812,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in AMGN. Hillsdale Investment Management Inc. raised its position in shares of Amgen by 44.3% in the 1st quarter. Hillsdale Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,400 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $398,000 after acquiring an additional 430 shares in the last quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Amgen by 29.3% in the 1st quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 37,202 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $10,578,000 after acquiring an additional 8,441 shares in the last quarter. CANADA LIFE ASSURANCE Co raised its position in shares of Amgen by 2.7% in the 1st quarter. CANADA LIFE ASSURANCE Co now owns 49,931 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $14,241,000 after acquiring an additional 1,311 shares in the last quarter. InterOcean Capital Group LLC raised its position in shares of Amgen by 3.7% in the 1st quarter. InterOcean Capital Group LLC now owns 7,055 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $2,006,000 after acquiring an additional 250 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Ossiam increased its position in Amgen by 154.2% during the 1st quarter. Ossiam now owns 49,414 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $14,049,000 after buying an additional 29,975 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 76.50% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

AMGN has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Dbs Bank raised Amgen to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, September 16th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered Amgen from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $320.00 to $335.00 in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. Jefferies Financial Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $380.00 price objective on shares of Amgen in a research report on Tuesday, November 12th. Wolfe Research initiated coverage on Amgen in a research report on Friday. They set a “peer perform” rating for the company. Finally, Barclays raised their price objective on Amgen from $300.00 to $315.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, October 7th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have assigned a hold rating, eleven have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $333.57.

Amgen Stock Performance

AMGN stock opened at $278.76 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $149.84 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.69, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.53 and a beta of 0.60. Amgen Inc. has a 1 year low of $260.52 and a 1 year high of $346.85. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 7.55, a current ratio of 1.32 and a quick ratio of 0.96. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $319.90 and its 200-day moving average price is $318.65.

Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The medical research company reported $5.58 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.11 by $0.47. Amgen had a return on equity of 168.35% and a net margin of 13.00%. The company had revenue of $8.50 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.50 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $4.96 EPS. Amgen’s revenue for the quarter was up 23.2% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts forecast that Amgen Inc. will post 19.51 earnings per share for the current year.

Amgen Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 9th. Investors of record on Monday, November 18th will be issued a $2.25 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, November 18th. This represents a $9.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.23%. Amgen’s dividend payout ratio is currently 115.24%.

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.