Traynor Capital Management Inc. Raises Stock Position in Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN)

Traynor Capital Management Inc. grew its holdings in Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN) by 9.5% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 18,941 shares of the medical research company’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,650 shares during the period. Traynor Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in Amgen were worth $5,455,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Amgen by 0.3% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 49,035,981 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $13,178,910,000 after acquiring an additional 165,636 shares during the period. Morgan Stanley raised its stake in shares of Amgen by 12.9% in the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 13,301,365 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $3,493,471,000 after acquiring an additional 1,523,665 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of Amgen by 1.1% in the 1st quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 8,819,690 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $2,132,778,000 after acquiring an additional 94,565 shares during the period. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Amgen by 83,875.6% in the 4th quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 7,541,011 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $1,980,571,000 after acquiring an additional 7,532,031 shares during the period. Finally, Northern Trust Corp increased its stake in Amgen by 3.8% during the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 6,977,625 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $1,875,306,000 after buying an additional 255,463 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 76.50% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on AMGN shares. BMO Capital Markets raised shares of Amgen from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $286.00 to $326.00 in a research note on Tuesday, December 19th. SVB Leerink downgraded shares of Amgen from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and dropped their price target for the stock from $324.00 to $318.00 in a research note on Wednesday, February 7th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Amgen from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday. Truist Financial reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $320.00 price target on shares of Amgen in a research note on Wednesday, November 29th. Finally, Daiwa Capital Markets raised shares of Amgen from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $264.00 to $320.00 in a research note on Thursday, December 21st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $295.30.

Amgen Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ AMGN traded down $1.98 during midday trading on Thursday, hitting $284.32. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 2,288,855 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,040,904. Amgen Inc. has a 1-year low of $211.71 and a 1-year high of $329.72. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $290.09 and its 200-day moving average price is $280.70. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 10.14, a quick ratio of 1.13 and a current ratio of 1.65. The firm has a market cap of $152.37 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.76, a P/E/G ratio of 2.66 and a beta of 0.58.

Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 6th. The medical research company reported $4.71 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.66 by $0.05. Amgen had a net margin of 23.83% and a return on equity of 154.27%. The business had revenue of $8.20 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.13 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $4.09 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 19.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Amgen Inc. will post 19.49 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Amgen Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 7th. Investors of record on Friday, May 17th will be given a $2.25 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 16th. This represents a $9.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.17%. Amgen’s dividend payout ratio is presently 72.06%.

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.