WBH Advisory Inc. Decreases Position in Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN)

WBH Advisory Inc. decreased its holdings in shares of Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN) by 2.0% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 1,806 shares of the medical research company’s stock after selling 37 shares during the quarter. WBH Advisory Inc.’s holdings in Amgen were worth $471,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Pathway Financial Advisers LLC lifted its stake in Amgen by 33,125.4% in the third 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 buying an additional 4,446,757 shares during the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC lifted its stake in Amgen by 6,812.4% in the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 2,523,387 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $8,130,610,000 after buying an additional 2,486,882 shares during the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its stake in Amgen by 561.5% in the third quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 1,539,733 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $496,117,000 after buying an additional 1,306,982 shares during the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp lifted its stake in Amgen by 263.8% in the fourth quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 1,038,593 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $270,699,000 after buying an additional 753,147 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Nordea Investment Management AB lifted its stake in Amgen by 40.7% in the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 2,338,665 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $609,526,000 after buying an additional 676,598 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 76.50% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other news, SVP Nancy A. Grygiel sold 1,589 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $304.47, for a total value of $483,802.83. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 7,210 shares in the company, valued at $2,195,228.70. This represents a 18.06 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, EVP Jonathan P. Graham sold 25,045 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction 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 owns 28,987 shares in the company, valued at $8,496,669.44. This represents a 46.35 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 35,405 shares of company stock worth $10,410,596 over the last three months. 0.69% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have weighed in on AMGN. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $324.00 price objective on shares of Amgen in a research note on Friday, January 24th. Cantor Fitzgerald reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $405.00 price objective on shares of Amgen in a research note on Tuesday, October 22nd. Jefferies Financial Group reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $380.00 target price on shares of Amgen in a report on Tuesday, November 12th. Redburn Partners dropped their target price on Amgen from $200.00 to $195.00 in a report on Wednesday, November 27th. Finally, UBS Group dropped their target price on Amgen from $335.00 to $326.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating, twelve have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $314.09.

Amgen Stock Down 2.0 %

Amgen stock opened at $291.16 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 9.62, a quick ratio of 0.96 and a current ratio of 1.26. The firm has a market capitalization of $156.51 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 38.56, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.01 and a beta of 0.56. Amgen Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $253.30 and a fifty-two week high of $346.85. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $274.12 and its two-hundred day moving average is $301.42.

Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The medical research company reported $5.31 earnings per share 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%. Analysts predict that Amgen Inc. will post 20.59 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Amgen Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 7th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 14th will be issued a $2.38 dividend. This is a positive change from Amgen’s previous quarterly dividend of $2.25. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 14th. This represents a $9.52 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.27%. Amgen’s dividend payout ratio is 119.21%.

Amgen 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.