Roman Butler Fullerton & Co. Cuts Stock Position in Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN)

Roman Butler Fullerton & Co. lessened its position in Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN) by 8.6% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 1,929 shares of the medical research company’s stock after selling 182 shares during the quarter. Roman Butler Fullerton & Co.’s holdings in Amgen were worth $546,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of AMGN. Lansing Street Advisors increased its stake in Amgen by 1.3% in the 3rd quarter. Lansing Street Advisors now owns 2,582 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $832,000 after purchasing an additional 32 shares in the last quarter. Unionview LLC grew its holdings in Amgen by 3.8% during the 3rd quarter. Unionview LLC now owns 876 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $282,000 after buying an additional 32 shares during the last quarter. AM Investment Strategies LLC grew its holdings in Amgen by 0.4% during the 3rd quarter. AM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 7,471 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $2,407,000 after buying an additional 33 shares during the last quarter. Avidian Wealth Enterprises LLC grew its holdings in Amgen by 0.6% during the 3rd quarter. Avidian Wealth Enterprises LLC now owns 5,863 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $1,889,000 after buying an additional 33 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Beacon Financial Advisory LLC grew its holdings in Amgen by 4.6% during the 3rd quarter. Beacon Financial Advisory LLC now owns 769 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $248,000 after buying an additional 34 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 76.50% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Amgen

In other news, EVP Jonathan P. Graham sold 25,045 shares of Amgen stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $293.12, for a total transaction of $7,341,190.40. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 28,987 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,496,669.44. The trade was a 46.35 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Nancy A. Grygiel sold 1,589 shares of Amgen stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $304.47, for a total value of $483,802.83. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 7,210 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,195,228.70. The trade was a 18.06 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 35,405 shares of company stock valued at $10,410,596 over the last three months. 0.69% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have commented on AMGN. Bank of America increased their target price on Amgen from $256.00 to $275.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a report on Thursday, February 6th. StockNews.com cut Amgen from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. Leerink Partners lowered their target price on Amgen from $349.00 to $302.00 in a report on Wednesday, November 27th. Citigroup lowered their target price on Amgen from $310.00 to $295.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, January 28th. Finally, TD Cowen raised their price objective on Amgen from $381.00 to $383.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, October 21st. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating, twelve have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Amgen currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $314.09.

Amgen Price Performance

Shares of Amgen stock opened at $291.16 on Friday. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $273.75 and its 200 day moving average price is $302.14. The company has a current ratio of 1.26, a quick ratio of 0.96 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 9.62. Amgen Inc. has a twelve month low of $253.30 and a twelve month high of $346.85. The stock has a market capitalization of $156.51 billion, a P/E ratio of 38.56, a PEG ratio of 3.01 and a beta of 0.56.

Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 4th. The medical research company reported $5.31 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $5.04 by $0.27. Amgen had a return on equity of 176.32% and a net margin of 12.24%. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Amgen Inc. will post 20.59 earnings per share for the current 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 given a $2.38 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 14th. 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 3.27%. Amgen’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 126.09%.

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.