Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) Rating Lowered to Buy at StockNews.com

Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) was downgraded by equities research analysts at StockNews.com from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note issued on Thursday.

AMGN has been the topic of several other reports. Johnson Rice set a $294.00 price objective on Amgen in a research report on Wednesday, March 5th. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $324.00 target price on shares of Amgen in a research note on Friday, January 24th. Piper Sandler Companies reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $310.00 price target on shares of Amgen in a research note on Thursday, January 2nd. Piper Sandler lifted their target price on Amgen from $310.00 to $329.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, February 10th. Finally, Bank of America boosted their target price on Amgen from $275.00 to $294.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 5th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating, twelve have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Amgen currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $314.91.

Amgen Stock Performance

Shares of AMGN opened at $282.64 on Thursday. Amgen has a 52 week low of $253.30 and a 52 week high of $346.85. The company has a quick ratio of 0.95, a current ratio of 1.26 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 9.62. The stock has a market cap of $151.96 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.44, a PEG ratio of 2.63 and a beta of 0.59. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $303.78 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $294.82.

Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The medical research company reported $5.31 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $5.04 by $0.27. Amgen had a net margin of 12.24% and a return on equity of 176.32%. On average, analysts expect that Amgen will post 20.62 EPS for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Amgen

In other news, EVP David M. Reese sold 8,711 shares of Amgen stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $293.22, for a total transaction of $2,554,239.42. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 62,147 shares in the company, valued at approximately $18,222,743.34. The trade was a 12.29 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, EVP Jonathan P. Graham sold 25,045 shares of Amgen stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $293.12, for a total value of $7,341,190.40. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 28,987 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,496,669.44. This represents a 46.35 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 69,341 shares of company stock worth $20,644,335. Insiders own 0.69% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of AMGN. Capital World Investors increased its holdings in Amgen by 1,292.0% in the fourth quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 6,495,710 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $1,693,042,000 after buying an additional 6,029,058 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Amgen in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $1,541,991,000. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its position in shares of Amgen by 43,573.5% during the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 3,661,589 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $1,140,768,000 after buying an additional 3,653,205 shares in the last quarter. Capital International Investors grew its stake in Amgen by 40.1% in the 4th quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 12,212,065 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $3,182,843,000 after acquiring an additional 3,495,503 shares during the period. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its holdings in Amgen by 25.4% in the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 13,205,604 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $3,441,909,000 after acquiring an additional 2,672,975 shares in the last quarter. 76.50% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.