SouthState Corp Acquires 519 Shares of Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN)

SouthState Corp boosted its holdings in Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN) by 2.2% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 24,257 shares of the medical research company’s stock after purchasing an additional 519 shares during the quarter. SouthState Corp’s holdings in Amgen were worth $7,557,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in AMGN. Capital World Investors increased its holdings in Amgen by 1,292.0% in the fourth quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 6,495,710 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $1,693,042,000 after purchasing an additional 6,029,058 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its holdings in Amgen by 43,573.5% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 3,661,589 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $1,140,768,000 after purchasing an additional 3,653,205 shares in the last quarter. Capital International Investors increased its holdings in Amgen by 40.1% in the fourth quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 12,212,065 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $3,182,843,000 after purchasing an additional 3,495,503 shares in the last quarter. Nuveen LLC acquired a new stake in Amgen in the first quarter valued at approximately $688,868,000. Finally, Northern Trust Corp grew its stake in Amgen by 15.8% in the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 6,431,029 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $1,676,183,000 after acquiring an additional 875,254 shares during the period. 76.50% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have commented on the company. Royal Bank Of Canada reduced their price objective on Amgen from $324.00 to $320.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, May 2nd. UBS Group reduced their price objective on Amgen from $326.00 to $317.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday. Cantor Fitzgerald reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $305.00 price objective on shares of Amgen in a research note on Tuesday, June 24th. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on Amgen from $330.00 to $333.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, Citigroup raised their price objective on Amgen from $305.00 to $310.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have given a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Amgen presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $303.76.

Amgen Stock Up 1.2%

AMGN stock opened at $288.23 on Friday. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $293.23 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $292.71. The company has a current ratio of 1.31, a quick ratio of 0.88 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 7.24. Amgen Inc. has a 1-year low of $253.30 and a 1-year high of $339.17. The stock has a market cap of $155.17 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.57, a P/E/G ratio of 2.47 and a beta of 0.49.

Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, August 5th. The medical research company reported $6.02 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $5.28 by $0.74. Amgen had a return on equity of 174.71% and a net margin of 18.96%. The business had revenue of $9.18 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.86 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $4.97 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 9.4% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts expect that Amgen Inc. will post 20.62 EPS for the current year.

Amgen Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 12th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 22nd will be paid a $2.38 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, August 22nd. This represents a $9.52 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.3%. Amgen’s payout ratio is presently 77.84%.

Insider Activity

In other Amgen news, SVP Rachna Khosla sold 1,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, June 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $289.68, for a total value of $434,520.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 8,162 shares in the company, valued at $2,364,368.16. The trade was a 15.52% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 0.76% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.