Citigroup Upgrades Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) to Hold

Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) was upgraded by equities researchers at Citigroup to a “hold” rating in a report issued on Wednesday,Zacks.com reports.

Other research analysts have also recently issued reports about the stock. Oppenheimer reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $380.00 price objective on shares of Amgen in a report on Wednesday, August 7th. Sanford C. Bernstein started coverage on shares of Amgen in a report on Thursday, October 17th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $380.00 target price for the company. William Blair restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Amgen in a report on Tuesday. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft restated a “hold” rating and set a $305.00 target price (down from $310.00) on shares of Amgen in a report on Wednesday, August 7th. Finally, UBS Group reduced their target price on shares of Amgen from $335.00 to $326.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, October 31st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have assigned a hold rating, eleven have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $333.57.

Amgen Price Performance

NASDAQ AMGN opened at $295.93 on Wednesday. Amgen has a 52 week low of $260.52 and a 52 week high of $346.85. The company has a current ratio of 1.32, a quick ratio of 0.96 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 7.55. The stock has a market cap of $159.07 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.89, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.67 and a beta of 0.60. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $322.15 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $318.15.

Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 30th. The medical research company reported $5.58 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $5.11 by $0.47. The business had revenue of $8.50 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.50 billion. Amgen had a net margin of 13.00% and a return on equity of 168.35%. The business’s revenue was up 23.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm posted $4.96 earnings per share. Analysts forecast that Amgen will post 19.51 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Amgen

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in AMGN. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its stake in Amgen by 2.4% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 10,532,629 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $3,393,718,000 after buying an additional 251,876 shares during the last quarter. Capital International Investors lifted its holdings in Amgen by 547.8% during the 1st quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 7,005,269 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $1,991,738,000 after purchasing an additional 5,923,915 shares during the last quarter. Pathway Financial Advisers LLC lifted its holdings in Amgen by 33,125.4% during the 3rd quarter. Pathway Financial Advisers LLC now owns 4,460,181 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $1,437,115,000 after purchasing an additional 4,446,757 shares during the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC lifted its holdings in Amgen by 6.3% during the 3rd quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 4,442,543 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $1,431,432,000 after purchasing an additional 264,396 shares during the last quarter. Finally, FMR LLC raised its stake in shares of Amgen by 4.5% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 4,247,304 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $1,368,524,000 after acquiring an additional 181,703 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 76.50% of the company’s stock.

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.