Short Interest in Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN) Declines By 5.8%

Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN) was the target of a significant decrease in short interest in March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totalling 10,470,000 shares, a decrease of 5.8% from the March 15th total of 11,110,000 shares. Currently, 2.0% of the shares of the company are short sold. Based on an average trading volume of 2,920,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 3.6 days.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. BIP Wealth LLC raised its holdings in Amgen by 2.6% during the 4th quarter. BIP Wealth LLC now owns 1,249 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $360,000 after purchasing an additional 32 shares during the last quarter. Southland Equity Partners LLC raised its holdings in Amgen by 2.3% during the 4th quarter. Southland Equity Partners LLC now owns 1,538 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $443,000 after purchasing an additional 34 shares during the last quarter. Acropolis Investment Management LLC raised its holdings in Amgen by 3.5% during the 4th quarter. Acropolis Investment Management LLC now owns 999 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $288,000 after purchasing an additional 34 shares during the last quarter. Opal Wealth Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Amgen by 1.9% during the 4th quarter. Opal Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,868 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $538,000 after purchasing an additional 34 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Marino Stram & Associates LLC raised its holdings in Amgen by 0.7% during the 4th quarter. Marino Stram & Associates LLC now owns 4,626 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $1,332,000 after purchasing an additional 34 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 76.50% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have issued reports on AMGN. Leerink Partnrs downgraded shares of Amgen from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 7th. Daiwa Capital Markets upgraded shares of Amgen from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $264.00 to $320.00 in a research note on Thursday, December 21st. Raymond James began coverage on shares of Amgen in a research note on Thursday, March 28th. They set a “market perform” rating on the stock. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $329.00 price objective on shares of Amgen in a research note on Wednesday, April 3rd. Finally, Oppenheimer reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $350.00 price objective on shares of Amgen in a research note on Thursday, February 1st. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $295.30.

Amgen Stock Up 0.0 %

Shares of NASDAQ AMGN opened at $265.64 on Wednesday. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $278.62 and a 200 day simple moving average of $281.49. The firm has a market cap of $142.36 billion, a PE ratio of 21.27, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.53 and a beta of 0.58. Amgen has a 1 year low of $211.71 and a 1 year high of $329.72. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 10.14, a current ratio of 1.65 and a quick ratio of 1.13.

Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 6th. The medical research company reported $4.71 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.66 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $8.20 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.13 billion. Amgen had a net margin of 23.83% and a return on equity of 154.27%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 19.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $4.09 EPS. On average, research analysts forecast that Amgen will post 19.49 EPS for the current year.

Amgen Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 7th. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 17th will be issued a dividend of $2.25 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 16th. This represents a $9.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.39%. Amgen’s payout ratio is 72.06%.

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.