Hendley & Co. Inc. Boosts Stock Position in Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN)

Hendley & Co. Inc. grew its holdings in Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN) by 29.7% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 1,529 shares of the medical research company’s stock after acquiring an additional 350 shares during the quarter. Hendley & Co. Inc.’s holdings in Amgen were worth $399,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the business. BHK Investment Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Amgen by 9.4% during the fourth quarter. BHK Investment Advisors LLC now owns 2,459 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $641,000 after acquiring an additional 211 shares in the last quarter. Brown Financial Advisors lifted its stake in Amgen by 28.5% in the fourth quarter. Brown Financial Advisors now owns 1,632 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $425,000 after acquiring an additional 362 shares during the period. Trifecta Capital Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Amgen by 1.7% in the 4th quarter. Trifecta Capital Advisors LLC now owns 11,453 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $2,985,000 after purchasing an additional 193 shares during the period. Mengis Capital Management Inc. increased its holdings in Amgen by 9.0% during the fourth quarter. Mengis Capital Management Inc. now owns 6,052 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $1,577,000 after buying an additional 500 shares during the period. Finally, Pine Valley Investments Ltd Liability Co lifted its holdings in Amgen by 4.3% during the fourth quarter. Pine Valley Investments Ltd Liability Co now owns 4,913 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $1,280,000 after buying an additional 204 shares during the period. 76.50% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on AMGN shares. Redburn Partners cut their price target on Amgen from $200.00 to $195.00 in a report on Wednesday, November 27th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Amgen from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 18th. UBS Group reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of Amgen in a research report on Wednesday, February 12th. Jefferies Financial Group reissued a “buy” rating and set a $380.00 target price on shares of Amgen in a research report on Tuesday, November 12th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company reaffirmed an “equal weight” rating on shares of Amgen in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating, twelve have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $314.09.

Amgen Price Performance

NASDAQ:AMGN opened at $309.72 on Tuesday. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $277.14 and a 200-day moving average price of $300.20. The firm has a market cap of $166.38 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 41.02, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.63 and a beta of 0.56. Amgen Inc. has a 1-year low of $253.30 and a 1-year high of $346.85. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 9.62, a current ratio of 1.26 and a quick ratio of 0.95.

Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The medical research company reported $5.31 earnings per share 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%. Equities research analysts forecast that Amgen Inc. will post 20.62 EPS for the current year.

Amgen Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 7th. Investors of record on Friday, February 14th will be paid 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 3.07%. This is a boost from Amgen’s previous quarterly dividend of $2.25. Amgen’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 126.09%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Amgen news, EVP Jonathan P. Graham sold 25,045 shares of the company’s 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 in the company, valued at $8,496,669.44. This represents a 46.35 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, EVP David M. Reese sold 8,711 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $293.22, for a total transaction of $2,554,239.42. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 62,147 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $18,222,743.34. This represents a 12.29 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 69,341 shares of company stock valued at $20,644,335. 0.69% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

About Amgen

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.