West Michigan Advisors LLC Has $417,000 Stock Holdings in Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN)

West Michigan Advisors LLC lessened its holdings in Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN) by 2.4% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 1,599 shares of the medical research company’s stock after selling 39 shares during the quarter. West Michigan Advisors LLC’s holdings in Amgen were worth $417,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Capital Performance Advisors LLP bought a new position in shares of Amgen in the 3rd quarter valued at $25,000. Legacy Investment Solutions LLC bought a new position in shares of Amgen in the 3rd quarter valued at $29,000. Centricity Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Amgen in the 4th quarter valued at $25,000. Heck Capital Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Amgen in the 4th quarter valued at $36,000. Finally, Kennebec Savings Bank bought a new position in shares of Amgen in the 3rd quarter valued at $57,000. 76.50% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have recently commented on AMGN. Jefferies Financial Group reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $380.00 price target on shares of Amgen in a research note on Tuesday, November 12th. Bank of America increased their price target on Amgen from $256.00 to $275.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. Wells Fargo & Company reaffirmed an “equal weight” rating on shares of Amgen in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. William Blair reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Amgen in a research report on Tuesday, November 12th. Finally, Leerink Partners lowered their target price on Amgen from $349.00 to $302.00 in a research report on Wednesday, November 27th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating, twelve have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Amgen currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $314.09.

Amgen Stock Performance

AMGN stock opened at $308.06 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.26, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 9.62. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $280.87 and a 200-day moving average price of $300.16. The firm has a market cap of $165.49 billion, a PE ratio of 40.80, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.63 and a beta of 0.56. Amgen Inc. has a 1-year low of $253.30 and a 1-year high of $346.85.

Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) last issued its earnings results 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, equities research analysts expect that Amgen Inc. will post 20.62 earnings per share for the current year.

Amgen Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 7th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 14th will be paid a $2.38 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 14th. This is an increase from Amgen’s previous quarterly dividend of $2.25. This represents a $9.52 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.09%. Amgen’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 126.09%.

Insider Activity

In other news, SVP Nancy A. Grygiel sold 1,589 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $304.47, for a total value of $483,802.83. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 7,210 shares in the company, valued at $2,195,228.70. This trade represents a 18.06 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, EVP Jonathan P. Graham sold 25,045 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated 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 of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $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 sold a total of 69,341 shares of company stock worth $20,644,335 in the last three months. Company insiders own 0.69% of the company’s stock.

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.