Morton Community Bank Lowers Stake in Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN)

Morton Community Bank lowered its stake in shares of Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN) by 1.1% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 10,782 shares of the medical research company’s stock after selling 125 shares during the quarter. Morton Community Bank’s holdings in Amgen were worth $3,474,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in AMGN. Capital Performance Advisors LLP purchased a new stake in shares of Amgen during the 3rd quarter valued at $25,000. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC bought a new position in shares of Amgen during the 2nd quarter valued at $26,000. Hershey Financial Advisers LLC bought a new position in shares of Amgen during the 2nd quarter valued at $30,000. nVerses Capital LLC bought a new position in shares of Amgen during the 2nd quarter valued at $31,000. Finally, Bbjs Financial Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Amgen during the 2nd quarter valued at $33,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 76.50% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts recently commented on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company lowered shares of Amgen from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and increased their target price for the company from $320.00 to $335.00 in a report on Wednesday, August 7th. Leerink Partners reduced their target price on shares of Amgen from $349.00 to $302.00 in a report on Wednesday. Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $405.00 target price on shares of Amgen in a report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Wolfe Research initiated coverage on shares of Amgen in a report on Friday, November 15th. They set a “peer perform” rating on the stock. Finally, Dbs Bank raised shares of Amgen to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, September 16th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have given a hold rating, twelve have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Amgen has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $323.05.

Amgen Trading Up 1.0 %

Shares of NASDAQ AMGN opened at $282.87 on Friday. Amgen Inc. has a 1 year low of $257.80 and a 1 year high of $346.85. The stock has a market cap of $152.05 billion, a P/E ratio of 36.22, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.50 and a beta of 0.60. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $311.37 and a 200 day moving average of $317.18. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 7.55, a current ratio of 1.32 and a quick ratio of 0.96.

Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The medical research company reported $5.58 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.11 by $0.47. Amgen had a net margin of 13.00% and a return on equity of 168.35%. The company had revenue of $8.50 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.50 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $4.96 EPS. Amgen’s revenue was up 23.2% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Amgen Inc. will post 19.52 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Amgen Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 9th. Investors of record on Monday, November 18th will be given a dividend of $2.25 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, November 18th. This represents a $9.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.18%. Amgen’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 115.24%.

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.