Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) Given New $310.00 Price Target at Morgan Stanley

Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) had its target price upped by stock analysts at Morgan Stanley from $271.00 to $310.00 in a note issued to investors on Friday, Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an “equal weight” rating on the medical research company’s stock. Morgan Stanley’s price target suggests a potential downside of 0.41% from the company’s current price.

A number of other analysts have also issued reports on the company. SVB Leerink lowered Amgen from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and dropped their target price for the stock from $324.00 to $318.00 in a research report on Wednesday, February 7th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Amgen from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 28th. UBS Group decreased their price target on shares of Amgen from $314.00 to $284.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 17th. TD Cowen decreased their price objective on shares of Amgen from $370.00 to $360.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 17th. Finally, Oppenheimer reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $350.00 price objective on shares of Amgen in a research note on Thursday, February 1st. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Amgen has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $305.05.

Amgen Price Performance

NASDAQ:AMGN opened at $311.29 on Friday. Amgen has a 52 week low of $211.71 and a 52 week high of $329.72. The company has a quick ratio of 1.13, a current ratio of 1.65 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 10.14. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $274.95 and its two-hundred day moving average is $281.50. The company has a market capitalization of $166.97 billion, a P/E ratio of 44.47, a P/E/G ratio of 2.69 and a beta of 0.60.

Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 2nd. The medical research company reported $3.96 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.76 by $0.20. Amgen had a return on equity of 145.62% and a net margin of 12.74%. The firm had revenue of $7.45 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $7.45 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $3.98 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 22.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts expect that Amgen will post 19.43 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Amgen

In other Amgen news, SVP Nancy A. Grygiel sold 2,117 shares of Amgen stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $313.09, for a total value of $662,811.53. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 9,883 shares in the company, valued at $3,094,268.47. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. 0.46% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Keener Financial Planning LLC raised its stake in shares of Amgen by 6.6% during the first quarter. Keener Financial Planning LLC now owns 1,041 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $296,000 after acquiring an additional 64 shares during the last quarter. Team Hewins LLC lifted its stake in shares of Amgen by 1.0% during the 1st quarter. Team Hewins LLC now owns 3,894 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $1,107,000 after buying an additional 40 shares in the last quarter. Affinity Investment Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Amgen by 56.7% in the 1st quarter. Affinity Investment Advisors LLC now owns 5,923 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $1,684,000 after purchasing an additional 2,142 shares in the last quarter. Richardson Financial Services Inc. lifted its stake in Amgen by 32.3% in the 1st quarter. Richardson Financial Services Inc. now owns 1,968 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $560,000 after purchasing an additional 480 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Catalina Capital Group LLC increased its holdings in shares of Amgen by 65.0% in the 1st quarter. Catalina Capital Group LLC now owns 2,000 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $569,000 after buying an additional 788 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 76.50% of the company’s stock.

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.