Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN) Shares Sold by Factory Mutual Insurance Co.

Factory Mutual Insurance Co. cut its holdings in shares of Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN) by 32.4% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 64,800 shares of the medical research company’s stock after selling 31,000 shares during the period. Factory Mutual Insurance Co.’s holdings in Amgen were worth $16,889,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors also recently modified their holdings of AMGN. Custom Index Systems LLC acquired a new position in Amgen in the fourth quarter worth about $274,000. Heck Capital Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Amgen in the fourth quarter worth about $36,000. Austin Private Wealth LLC grew its stake in Amgen by 19.9% in the fourth quarter. Austin Private Wealth LLC now owns 2,854 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $744,000 after purchasing an additional 473 shares in the last quarter. BTC Capital Management Inc. grew its stake in Amgen by 6.5% in the fourth quarter. BTC Capital Management Inc. now owns 6,190 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $1,613,000 after purchasing an additional 378 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Hamilton Point Investment Advisors LLC grew its stake in Amgen by 1.5% in the fourth quarter. Hamilton Point Investment Advisors LLC now owns 35,214 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $9,178,000 after purchasing an additional 532 shares in the last quarter. 76.50% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts recently commented on AMGN shares. Sanford C. Bernstein started coverage on Amgen in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $380.00 price target for the company. Leerink Partners cut their target price on shares of Amgen from $349.00 to $302.00 in a report on Wednesday, November 27th. StockNews.com lowered Amgen from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. UBS Group lowered their target price on Amgen from $335.00 to $326.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, Wolfe Research assumed coverage on Amgen in a report on Friday, November 15th. They set a “peer perform” rating for the company. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have issued a hold rating, thirteen have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $314.00.

Amgen Stock Performance

AMGN opened at $285.42 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $153.42 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.55, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.85 and a beta of 0.56. 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 Inc. has a 1-year low of $253.30 and a 1-year high of $346.85. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $271.24 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $304.84.

Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The medical research company reported $5.58 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.11 by $0.47. The firm had revenue of $8.50 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.50 billion. Amgen had a return on equity of 168.35% and a net margin of 13.00%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 23.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $4.96 earnings per share. Research analysts predict that Amgen Inc. will post 19.56 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Amgen Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared 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. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 14th. This represents a $9.52 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.34%. This is a boost from Amgen’s previous quarterly dividend of $2.25. Amgen’s dividend payout ratio is currently 115.24%.

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.