Royal Bank of Canada Has Lowered Expectations for Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) Stock Price

Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) had its target price dropped by stock analysts at Royal Bank of Canada from $324.00 to $320.00 in a report issued on Friday,Benzinga reports. The firm presently has an “outperform” rating on the medical research company’s stock. Royal Bank of Canada’s price target would indicate a potential upside of 13.79% from the stock’s current price.

Other equities analysts also recently issued reports about the company. Bank of America upped their target price on Amgen from $275.00 to $294.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 5th. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an “equal weight” rating on shares of Amgen in a report on Friday. UBS Group reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $315.00 price target (down from $319.00) on shares of Amgen in a research report on Friday. Piper Sandler Companies reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $310.00 price objective on shares of Amgen in a report on Thursday, January 2nd. Finally, Johnson Rice set a $294.00 target price on shares of Amgen in a research report on Wednesday, March 5th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating, nine have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Amgen presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $308.18.

Amgen Stock Performance

Shares of AMGN opened at $281.22 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.26, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 9.62. The firm has a market cap of $151.20 billion, a PE ratio of 37.25, a P/E/G ratio of 2.63 and a beta of 0.51. Amgen has a 12 month low of $253.30 and a 12 month high of $346.85. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $299.66 and a 200-day moving average price of $291.28.

Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 1st. The medical research company reported $4.90 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $4.18 by $0.72. The business had revenue of $8.15 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.05 billion. Amgen had a return on equity of 176.32% and a net margin of 12.24%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 9.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $3.96 earnings per share. Equities research analysts predict that Amgen will post 20.62 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other news, EVP David M. Reese sold 8,711 shares of Amgen stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $293.22, for a total value of $2,554,239.42. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 62,147 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $18,222,743.34. The trade was a 12.29 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, SVP Nancy A. Grygiel sold 1,589 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $304.47, for a total value of $483,802.83. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 7,210 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,195,228.70. This represents a 18.06 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 69,341 shares of company stock worth $20,644,335 over the last 90 days. 0.69% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Amgen

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of AMGN. Centricity Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in Amgen in the 4th quarter valued at about $25,000. Pinney & Scofield Inc. purchased a new position in Amgen during the fourth quarter worth approximately $26,000. First Pacific Financial lifted its position in Amgen by 304.5% during the first quarter. First Pacific Financial now owns 89 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $28,000 after buying an additional 67 shares in the last quarter. Ritter Daniher Financial Advisory LLC DE grew its holdings in Amgen by 66.2% in the 4th quarter. Ritter Daniher Financial Advisory LLC DE now owns 128 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $33,000 after buying an additional 51 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Synergy Investment Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Amgen in the 4th quarter worth $34,000. 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.