Centaurus Financial Inc. Boosts Stock Position in Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN)

Centaurus Financial Inc. boosted its stake in Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN – Get Rating) by 9.7% in the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 2,128 shares of the medical research company’s stock after buying an additional 189 shares during the quarter. Centaurus Financial Inc.’s holdings in Amgen were worth $480,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of AMGN. FMR LLC lifted its holdings in Amgen by 24.9% in the second quarter. FMR LLC now owns 8,911,384 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $2,168,140,000 after buying an additional 1,774,223 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Amgen by 2.8% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 47,459,511 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $10,697,373,000 after buying an additional 1,310,894 shares during the period. Renaissance Technologies LLC lifted its holdings in Amgen by 279.3% in the second quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 1,439,745 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $350,290,000 after buying an additional 1,060,200 shares during the period. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership lifted its holdings in Amgen by 164.9% in the first quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 1,337,970 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $323,548,000 after buying an additional 832,885 shares during the period. Finally, Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. lifted its holdings in Amgen by 84.5% in the third quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. now owns 1,201,655 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $270,853,000 after buying an additional 550,439 shares during the period. 75.53% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Amgen Price Performance

Shares of AMGN opened at $229.79 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $122.70 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.98, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.86 and a beta of 0.65. The company has a quick ratio of 1.10, a current ratio of 1.41 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 10.20. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $245.91 and a 200 day moving average of $254.71. Amgen Inc. has a twelve month low of $223.30 and a twelve month high of $296.67.

Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN – Get Rating) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, February 7th. The medical research company reported $4.09 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.04 by $0.05. Amgen had a net margin of 24.89% and a return on equity of 359.47%. The business had revenue of $6.84 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.77 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $4.36 EPS. The firm’s revenue was down .1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Amgen Inc. will post 17.72 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Amgen Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 8th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 18th will be given a $2.13 dividend. This represents a $8.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.71%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, May 17th. Amgen’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 70.36%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

AMGN has been the subject of several research analyst reports. BMO Capital Markets lowered their price objective on shares of Amgen from $276.00 to $253.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, February 1st. SVB Securities lowered their target price on shares of Amgen from $282.00 to $267.00 in a report on Thursday, February 2nd. Cowen lowered their target price on shares of Amgen from $307.00 to $289.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, February 1st. StockNews.com assumed coverage on shares of Amgen in a report on Thursday. They set a “strong-buy” rating for the company. Finally, Credit Suisse Group lowered their target price on shares of Amgen from $240.00 to $220.00 and set an “underperform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, February 1st. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating, six have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Amgen has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $251.44.

About Amgen

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Amgen, Inc is a biotechnology company, which engages in the discovery, development, manufacture, and marketing of human therapeutics. It operates through Human Therapeutics segment. The company was founded by William K. Bowes, Jr., Franklin Pitcher Johnson, Jr., George B. Rathmann, and Joseph Rubinfeld on April 8, 1980 and is headquartered in Thousand Oaks, CA.