Short Interest in Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN) Expands By 13.6%

Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN) was the target of a significant increase in short interest during the month of November. As of November 30th, there was short interest totalling 11,140,000 shares, an increase of 13.6% from the November 15th total of 9,810,000 shares. Approximately 2.1% of the shares of the company are sold short. Based on an average trading volume of 2,790,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 4.0 days.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Amgen

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Capital Performance Advisors LLP acquired a new position in shares of Amgen in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $25,000. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC acquired a new position in shares of Amgen in the 2nd quarter valued at about $26,000. Legacy Investment Solutions LLC bought a new stake in shares of Amgen during the 3rd quarter valued at about $29,000. Hershey Financial Advisers LLC bought a new position in Amgen in the second quarter worth about $30,000. Finally, nVerses Capital LLC acquired a new position in Amgen in the second quarter valued at approximately $31,000. Institutional investors own 76.50% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on AMGN. TD Cowen raised their price objective on shares of Amgen from $381.00 to $383.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, October 21st. Wolfe Research began coverage on Amgen in a research note on Friday, November 15th. They set a “peer perform” rating for the company. Citigroup dropped their target price on Amgen from $335.00 to $310.00 in a report on Wednesday, November 27th. William Blair reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Amgen in a research report on Tuesday, November 12th. Finally, Truist Financial downgraded shares of Amgen from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $320.00 to $333.00 in a research report on Monday, October 14th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have assigned a hold rating, eleven have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Amgen currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $319.68.

Amgen Stock Performance

NASDAQ:AMGN opened at $270.62 on Monday. Amgen has a twelve month low of $257.80 and a twelve month high of $346.85. The firm has a market capitalization of $145.47 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.65, a PEG ratio of 2.91 and a beta of 0.55. The company has a current ratio of 1.32, a quick ratio of 0.96 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 7.55. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $302.02 and its 200 day simple moving average is $314.86.

Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The medical research company reported $5.58 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.50 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $4.96 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 23.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Amgen will post 19.53 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Amgen Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 7th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 14th will be issued a dividend of $2.38 per share. This is a positive change from Amgen’s previous quarterly dividend of $2.25. This represents a $9.52 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.52%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 14th. Amgen’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 115.24%.

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.