Americana Partners LLC Lowers Holdings in Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN)

Americana Partners LLC lowered its stake in shares of Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN) by 6.0% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 13,915 shares of the medical research company’s stock after selling 888 shares during the period. Americana Partners LLC’s holdings in Amgen were worth $3,627,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Pathway Financial Advisers LLC grew its position in Amgen by 33,125.4% during the third quarter. Pathway Financial Advisers LLC now owns 4,460,181 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $1,437,115,000 after buying an additional 4,446,757 shares during the period. International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Amgen by 6,812.4% during the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 2,523,387 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $8,130,610,000 after acquiring an additional 2,486,882 shares in the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. grew its position in shares of Amgen by 561.5% during the 3rd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 1,539,733 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $496,117,000 after acquiring an additional 1,306,982 shares during the period. Van ECK Associates Corp increased its stake in shares of Amgen by 263.8% in the 4th quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 1,038,593 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $270,699,000 after purchasing an additional 753,147 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Nordea Investment Management AB raised its holdings in Amgen by 40.7% in the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 2,338,665 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $609,526,000 after purchasing an additional 676,598 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 76.50% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

AMGN has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Cantor Fitzgerald restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $405.00 price objective on shares of Amgen in a research report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Piper Sandler Companies restated an “overweight” rating and set a $310.00 price objective on shares of Amgen in a research report on Thursday, January 2nd. Truist Financial decreased their price objective on shares of Amgen from $333.00 to $298.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. Piper Sandler boosted their target price on shares of Amgen from $310.00 to $329.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, February 10th. Finally, Bank of America raised their price target on shares of Amgen from $256.00 to $275.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating, twelve have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $314.09.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, EVP Jonathan P. Graham sold 25,045 shares of Amgen stock in a transaction on Friday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $293.12, for a total value of $7,341,190.40. Following the completion of 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 filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Murdo Gordon sold 8,771 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $294.79, for a total value of $2,585,603.09. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 44,186 shares in the company, valued at $13,025,590.94. This represents a 16.56 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 35,405 shares of company stock valued at $10,410,596 over the last 90 days. 0.69% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Amgen Stock Performance

Amgen stock opened at $291.16 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $156.51 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 38.56, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.01 and a beta of 0.56. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 9.62, a current ratio of 1.26 and a quick ratio of 0.96. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $274.12 and a 200-day simple moving average of $301.42. Amgen Inc. has a 1-year low of $253.30 and a 1-year high of $346.85.

Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The medical research company reported $5.31 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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%. On average, analysts expect that Amgen Inc. will post 20.59 EPS for the current year.

Amgen Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced 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 represents a $9.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.27%. This is a boost from Amgen’s previous quarterly dividend of $2.25. Amgen’s dividend payout ratio is presently 119.21%.

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.