Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) Raised to Equal Weight at Barclays

Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) was upgraded by Barclays from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating in a research report issued to clients and investors on Friday, MarketBeat Ratings reports. The brokerage currently has a $300.00 target price on the medical research company’s stock, up from their previous target price of $230.00. Barclays‘s price target would indicate a potential downside of 3.63% from the company’s current price.

AMGN has been the topic of a number of other research reports. StockNews.com downgraded Amgen from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 28th. TD Cowen dropped their target price on shares of Amgen from $370.00 to $360.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 17th. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $329.00 price target on shares of Amgen in a report on Wednesday, April 3rd. Oppenheimer reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $350.00 price objective on shares of Amgen in a research note on Thursday, February 1st. Finally, UBS Group reduced their price objective on shares of Amgen from $314.00 to $284.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 17th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $305.05.

Amgen Trading Up 11.8 %

Shares of AMGN opened at $311.29 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $166.97 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 44.47, a PEG ratio of 2.69 and a beta of 0.60. 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 has a 1-year low of $211.71 and a 1-year high of $329.72. The company has a 50-day moving average of $274.95 and a 200 day moving average of $281.50.

Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) last posted 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 12.74% and a return on equity of 145.62%. The firm had revenue of $7.45 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $7.45 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $3.98 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 22.0% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts expect that Amgen will post 19.43 EPS for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Amgen

In other Amgen news, SVP Nancy A. Grygiel sold 2,117 shares of Amgen stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $313.09, for a total transaction 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 approximately $3,094,268.47. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Insiders own 0.46% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Amgen

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in Amgen by 0.3% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 49,035,981 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $13,178,910,000 after purchasing an additional 165,636 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp raised its stake in shares of Amgen by 3.8% during the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 6,977,625 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $1,875,306,000 after buying an additional 255,463 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its holdings in shares of Amgen by 3.9% in the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 6,564,710 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $1,890,769,000 after buying an additional 243,720 shares during the period. Royal Bank of Canada boosted its stake in shares of Amgen by 14.8% in the fourth quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 5,831,624 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $1,679,625,000 after buying an additional 751,947 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Amgen during the fourth quarter worth about $1,556,912,000. 76.50% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Amgen Company 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.