Monarch Capital Management Inc. Buys Shares of 710 Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN)

Monarch Capital Management Inc. bought a new stake in Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund bought 710 shares of the medical research company’s stock, valued at approximately $204,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Amgen by 0.3% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 49,035,981 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $13,178,910,000 after acquiring an additional 165,636 shares during the period. Morgan Stanley increased its position in shares of Amgen by 12.9% during the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 13,301,365 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $3,493,471,000 after acquiring an additional 1,523,665 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its position in shares of Amgen by 1.1% during the first quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 8,819,690 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $2,132,778,000 after acquiring an additional 94,565 shares during the period. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Amgen by 83,875.6% during the fourth quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 7,541,011 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $1,980,571,000 after acquiring an additional 7,532,031 shares during the period. Finally, Northern Trust Corp increased its position in shares of Amgen by 3.8% during the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 6,977,625 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $1,875,306,000 after acquiring an additional 255,463 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 76.50% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

AMGN has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Oppenheimer reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $350.00 target price on shares of Amgen in a research note on Thursday, February 1st. SVB Leerink downgraded shares of Amgen from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and decreased their target price for the stock from $324.00 to $318.00 in a research note on Wednesday, February 7th. Leerink Partnrs cut shares of Amgen from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 7th. StockNews.com cut shares of Amgen from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 19th. Finally, Morgan Stanley cut their price target on shares of Amgen from $281.00 to $278.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, February 7th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Amgen has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $295.30.

Amgen Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ AMGN traded up $0.95 during trading hours on Tuesday, hitting $281.77. 3,343,043 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 3,066,948. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 10.14, a current ratio of 1.65 and a quick ratio of 1.13. The company’s 50 day moving average is $290.88 and its 200 day moving average is $280.50. The firm has a market capitalization of $151.01 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.56, a P/E/G ratio of 2.59 and a beta of 0.58. Amgen Inc. has a one year low of $211.71 and a one year high of $329.72.

Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 6th. The medical research company reported $4.71 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $4.66 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $8.20 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.13 billion. Amgen had a net margin of 23.83% and a return on equity of 154.27%. Amgen’s quarterly revenue was up 19.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $4.09 EPS. On average, research analysts expect that Amgen Inc. will post 19.48 EPS for the current year.

Amgen Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 7th. Investors of record on Friday, May 17th will be paid a dividend of $2.25 per share. This represents a $9.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.19%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 16th. Amgen’s payout ratio is currently 72.06%.

Amgen Company 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.