International Assets Investment Management LLC Acquires New Position in Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN)

International Assets Investment Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN) in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm bought 114,159 shares of the medical research company’s stock, valued at approximately $32,880,000.

Other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its holdings in shares of Amgen by 486.6% in the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 899,232 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $258,997,000 after acquiring an additional 745,929 shares in the last quarter. Royal Bank of Canada raised its holdings in Amgen by 11.4% during the 3rd quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 5,079,677 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $1,365,213,000 after buying an additional 518,689 shares during the period. J.P. Morgan Private Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Amgen in the third quarter valued at approximately $128,425,000. Invesco Ltd. increased its position in shares of Amgen by 15.9% during the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 3,356,359 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $902,055,000 after acquiring an additional 459,340 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Great Lakes Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Amgen by 1,320.4% during the third quarter. Great Lakes Advisors LLC now owns 406,488 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $109,248,000 after acquiring an additional 377,870 shares during the period. 76.50% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Amgen Price Performance

Shares of AMGN opened at $311.29 on Friday. The company’s 50-day moving average is $274.51 and its 200-day moving average is $281.33. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 10.14, a current ratio of 1.65 and a quick ratio of 1.13. The firm has a market capitalization of $166.97 billion, a PE ratio of 24.92, a PEG ratio of 2.68 and a beta of 0.60. Amgen Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $211.71 and a fifty-two week high of $329.72.

Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 2nd. The medical research company reported $3.96 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.76 by $0.20. Amgen had a net margin of 23.83% and a return on equity of 154.27%. The firm had revenue of $7.45 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $7.45 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $3.98 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 22.0% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts forecast that Amgen Inc. will post 19.43 EPS for the current year.

Amgen Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 7th. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 17th will be issued a $2.25 dividend. This represents a $9.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.89%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 16th. Amgen’s dividend payout ratio is 72.06%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on the company. William Blair upgraded Amgen from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday. SVB Leerink downgraded Amgen from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and reduced their price target for the stock from $324.00 to $318.00 in a research report on Wednesday, February 7th. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price objective on shares of Amgen from $336.00 to $355.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on shares of Amgen from $271.00 to $310.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of Amgen from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $305.05.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, SVP Nancy A. Grygiel sold 2,117 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $313.09, for a total value of $662,811.53. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 9,883 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,094,268.47. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Company insiders own 0.46% of the company’s stock.

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.