Avalon Investment & Advisory Purchases 6,783 Shares of Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN)

Avalon Investment & Advisory raised its position in shares of Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN) by 7.1% in the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 102,009 shares of the medical research company’s stock after acquiring an additional 6,783 shares during the period. Avalon Investment & Advisory’s holdings in Amgen were worth $24,661,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Builder Investment Group Inc. ADV acquired a new position in Amgen in the fourth quarter worth about $378,000. FCA Corp TX raised its position in Amgen by 10.4% in the first quarter. FCA Corp TX now owns 17,321 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $4,187,000 after purchasing an additional 1,634 shares in the last quarter. Eudaimonia Partners LLC raised its position in Amgen by 62.9% in the first quarter. Eudaimonia Partners LLC now owns 1,886 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $456,000 after purchasing an additional 728 shares in the last quarter. PFG Investments LLC acquired a new position in Amgen in the first quarter worth about $449,000. Finally, Johnson Financial Group Inc. raised its position in Amgen by 12.6% in the first quarter. Johnson Financial Group Inc. now owns 11,415 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $2,760,000 after purchasing an additional 1,277 shares in the last quarter. 74.44% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have recently weighed in on AMGN. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price objective on shares of Amgen from $250.00 to $253.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Friday, August 4th. Jefferies Financial Group raised their price objective on shares of Amgen from $275.00 to $310.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, August 14th. Truist Financial reaffirmed a “hold” rating and set a $260.00 price objective on shares of Amgen in a report on Tuesday, September 5th. Oppenheimer reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $280.00 price objective on shares of Amgen in a report on Tuesday, July 25th. Finally, StockNews.com raised shares of Amgen from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Amgen currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $259.53.

Insider Buying and Selling at Amgen

In other news, EVP Murdo Gordon sold 9,558 shares of Amgen stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $262.43, for a total transaction of $2,508,305.94. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 44,308 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $11,627,748.44. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Insiders own 0.46% of the company’s stock.

Amgen Trading Up 2.0 %

AMGN stock traded up $5.04 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $259.43. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 2,449,115 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,928,423. Amgen Inc. has a 52 week low of $211.71 and a 52 week high of $296.67. The stock has a market cap of $138.77 billion, a PE ratio of 17.49, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.20 and a beta of 0.61. The company has a quick ratio of 2.48, a current ratio of 2.77 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.76. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $244.42 and its 200-day simple moving average is $236.81.

Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 3rd. The medical research company reported $5.00 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.44 by $0.56. Amgen had a net margin of 30.02% and a return on equity of 196.60%. The firm had revenue of $7 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $6.66 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $4.65 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.2% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Amgen Inc. will post 18.35 EPS for the current year.

Amgen Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 8th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 18th were paid a $2.13 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, August 17th. This represents a $8.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.28%. Amgen’s payout ratio is presently 57.45%.

Amgen Profile

Amgen Inc discovers, develops, manufactures, and delivers human therapeutics worldwide. It focuses on inflammation, oncology/hematology, bone health, cardiovascular disease, nephrology, and neuroscience areas. The company's products include Enbrel to treat plaque psoriasis, rheumatoid arthritis, and psoriatic arthritis; Neulasta that reduces the chance of infection due a low white blood cell count in patients cancer; Prolia to treat postmenopausal women with osteoporosis; Xgeva for skeletal-related events prevention; Otezla for the treatment of adult patients with plaque psoriasis, psoriatic arthritis, and oral ulcers associated with Behçet's disease; Aranesp to treat a lower-than-normal number of red blood cells and anemia; KYPROLIS to treat patients with relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma; and Repatha, which reduces the risks of myocardial infarction, stroke, and coronary revascularization.