Piper Sandler Lowers Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) Price Target to $328.00

Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) had its target price decreased by research analysts at Piper Sandler from $329.00 to $328.00 in a research report issued to clients and investors on Friday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an “overweight” rating on the medical research company’s stock. Piper Sandler’s price objective indicates a potential upside of 20.41% from the stock’s current price.

Several other brokerages also recently weighed in on AMGN. Johnson Rice set a $294.00 price objective on shares of Amgen in a research report on Wednesday, March 5th. Bank of America lifted their target price on shares of Amgen from $275.00 to $294.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 5th. StockNews.com cut shares of Amgen from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday, May 10th. UBS Group reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $315.00 target price (down from $319.00) on shares of Amgen in a report on Friday, May 2nd. Finally, Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an “equal weight” rating on shares of Amgen in a report on Friday, May 2nd. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have issued a hold rating, ten have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $310.18.

Amgen Stock Up 0.3%

Shares of NASDAQ:AMGN opened at $272.41 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $146.48 billion, a PE ratio of 36.08, a P/E/G ratio of 2.63 and a beta of 0.51. The company has a current ratio of 1.26, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 9.62. Amgen has a twelve month low of $253.30 and a twelve month high of $346.85. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $291.00 and a 200-day simple moving average of $288.09.

Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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 net margin of 12.24% and a return on equity of 176.32%. The company’s revenue was up 9.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $3.96 EPS. On average, equities analysts predict that Amgen will post 20.62 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Amgen

In other news, EVP David M. Reese sold 25,225 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $304.44, for a total transaction of $7,679,499.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 36,922 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $11,240,533.68. This represents a 40.59% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 0.76% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Amgen

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Zurich Insurance Group Ltd FI grew its stake in shares of Amgen by 578.2% during the 1st quarter. Zurich Insurance Group Ltd FI now owns 123,440 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $38,458,000 after purchasing an additional 105,240 shares during the period. McIlrath & Eck LLC grew its stake in shares of Amgen by 43.5% during the 1st quarter. McIlrath & Eck LLC now owns 1,053 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $328,000 after purchasing an additional 319 shares during the period. Semmax Financial Advisors Inc. grew its stake in shares of Amgen by 6.0% during the 1st quarter. Semmax Financial Advisors Inc. now owns 12,604 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $3,927,000 after purchasing an additional 712 shares during the period. Peloton Wealth Strategists grew its stake in shares of Amgen by 1.8% during the 1st quarter. Peloton Wealth Strategists now owns 11,478 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $3,576,000 after purchasing an additional 200 shares during the period. Finally, Ascent Group LLC grew its stake in shares of Amgen by 30.5% during the 1st quarter. Ascent Group LLC now owns 14,939 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $4,655,000 after purchasing an additional 3,491 shares during the period. 76.50% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.