Brown Financial Advisors Increases Holdings in Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN)

Brown Financial Advisors increased its stake in Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN) by 28.5% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 1,632 shares of the medical research company’s stock after buying an additional 362 shares during the quarter. Brown Financial Advisors’ holdings in Amgen were worth $425,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in AMGN. AMF Tjanstepension AB increased its position in Amgen by 16.9% in the third quarter. AMF Tjanstepension AB now owns 120,389 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $38,825,000 after buying an additional 17,387 shares during the last quarter. Swedbank AB grew its stake in shares of Amgen by 1.1% during the 3rd quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 538,899 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $173,639,000 after acquiring an additional 5,751 shares during the period. Arkadios Wealth Advisors increased its holdings in Amgen by 5.8% in the 3rd quarter. Arkadios Wealth Advisors now owns 3,929 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $1,266,000 after acquiring an additional 215 shares during the last quarter. First American Bank raised its stake in Amgen by 24.1% in the 3rd quarter. First American Bank now owns 12,965 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $4,177,000 after acquiring an additional 2,518 shares during the period. Finally, Colton Groome Financial Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Amgen by 5.5% during the third quarter. Colton Groome Financial Advisors LLC now owns 6,744 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $2,173,000 after purchasing an additional 350 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 76.50% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

AMGN has been the subject of several recent research reports. Truist Financial reduced their target price on shares of Amgen from $333.00 to $298.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. Piper Sandler boosted their target price on shares of Amgen from $310.00 to $329.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, February 10th. Leerink Partners cut their price target on Amgen from $349.00 to $302.00 in a report on Wednesday, November 27th. StockNews.com cut Amgen from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 18th. Finally, Redburn Partners dropped their price objective on Amgen from $200.00 to $195.00 in a report on Wednesday, November 27th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating, twelve have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Amgen presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $314.09.

Amgen Stock Performance

AMGN stock opened at $309.72 on Tuesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $166.38 billion, a PE ratio of 41.02, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.63 and a beta of 0.56. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $277.14 and its 200 day simple moving average is $300.20. Amgen Inc. has a 12-month low of $253.30 and a 12-month high of $346.85. 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 (NASDAQ:AMGN) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 4th. The medical research company reported $5.31 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $5.04 by $0.27. Amgen had a return on equity of 176.32% and a net margin of 12.24%. As a group, research analysts forecast that Amgen Inc. will post 20.62 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Amgen Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 7th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 14th will be paid a dividend of $2.38 per share. This is an increase from Amgen’s previous quarterly dividend of $2.25. This represents a $9.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.07%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 14th. Amgen’s payout ratio is currently 126.09%.

Insider Activity

In related news, EVP Jonathan P. Graham sold 25,045 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $293.12, for a total value of $7,341,190.40. Following the completion of 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 transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, SVP Nancy A. Grygiel sold 1,589 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $304.47, for a total transaction of $483,802.83. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 7,210 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,195,228.70. This trade represents a 18.06 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 69,341 shares of company stock valued at $20,644,335 in the last quarter. 0.69% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.