Code Waechter LLC Buys 761 Shares of Amgen Inc. $AMGN

Code Waechter LLC grew its stake in Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN) by 51.2% during the second quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 2,247 shares of the medical research company’s stock after purchasing an additional 761 shares during the quarter. Code Waechter LLC’s holdings in Amgen were worth $627,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in Amgen by 0.3% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 52,870,453 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $16,471,790,000 after acquiring an additional 148,658 shares in the last quarter. Royal Bank of Canada grew its stake in Amgen by 6.0% in the 1st quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 4,883,134 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $1,521,339,000 after acquiring an additional 274,488 shares in the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. grew its stake in Amgen by 5.8% in the 1st quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 4,454,164 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $1,387,695,000 after acquiring an additional 243,306 shares in the last quarter. Deutsche Bank AG boosted its stake in shares of Amgen by 1.6% during the first quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 3,266,009 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $1,017,525,000 after purchasing an additional 52,734 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its stake in shares of Amgen by 0.8% during the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 3,020,545 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $940,989,000 after purchasing an additional 22,820 shares in the last quarter. 76.50% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

AMGN has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Amgen from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Amgen from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, October 27th. Bank of America increased their price objective on shares of Amgen from $261.00 to $272.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a research note on Friday, September 26th. Citigroup increased their price objective on shares of Amgen from $310.00 to $315.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 24th. Finally, UBS Group dropped their price objective on shares of Amgen from $326.00 to $317.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, August 6th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Amgen has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $300.94.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, SVP Nancy A. Grygiel sold 1,267 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $296.99, for a total transaction of $376,286.33. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president owned 7,209 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,141,000.91. This represents a 14.95% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. 0.76% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Amgen Trading Down 0.7%

NASDAQ:AMGN opened at $296.30 on Tuesday. Amgen Inc. has a 52 week low of $253.30 and a 52 week high of $335.88. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $287.91 and a 200 day moving average of $287.63. The company has a quick ratio of 0.98, a current ratio of 1.31 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 7.24. The stock has a market capitalization of $159.52 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.23, a PEG ratio of 2.61 and a beta of 0.49.

Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, August 5th. The medical research company reported $6.02 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.28 by $0.74. Amgen had a net margin of 18.96% and a return on equity of 174.71%. The company had revenue of $9.18 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.86 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $4.97 earnings per share. Amgen’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.4% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Amgen Inc. will post 20.62 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Amgen Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 12th. Investors of record on Friday, November 21st will be given a dividend of $2.38 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 21st. This represents a $9.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.2%. Amgen’s dividend payout ratio is presently 77.84%.

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.