Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN) Short Interest Update

Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN) saw a significant decrease in short interest in the month of October. As of October 31st, there was short interest totalling 8,820,000 shares, a decrease of 5.9% from the October 15th total of 9,370,000 shares. Currently, 1.6% of the company’s shares are short sold. Based on an average trading volume of 1,850,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 4.8 days.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have commented on AMGN. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $362.00 target price on shares of Amgen in a research report on Thursday, September 26th. Barclays upped their target price on shares of Amgen from $300.00 to $315.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, October 7th. Dbs Bank upgraded shares of Amgen to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, September 16th. Citigroup began coverage on shares of Amgen in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $335.00 price target on the stock. Finally, StockNews.com raised shares of Amgen from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have given a hold rating, eleven have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Amgen currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $333.57.

Amgen Stock Down 0.9 %

Shares of NASDAQ AMGN opened at $278.76 on Tuesday. Amgen has a 1 year low of $260.52 and a 1 year high of $346.85. The company has a market capitalization of $149.84 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.69, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.53 and a beta of 0.60. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 7.55, a current ratio of 1.32 and a quick ratio of 0.96. The business has a 50-day moving average of $319.90 and a two-hundred day moving average of $318.65.

Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The medical research company reported $5.58 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $5.11 by $0.47. The company had revenue of $8.50 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.50 billion. Amgen had a net margin of 13.00% and a return on equity of 168.35%. The firm’s revenue was up 23.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $4.96 earnings per share. On average, analysts forecast that Amgen will post 19.51 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Amgen Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 9th. Shareholders of record on Monday, November 18th will be issued a dividend of $2.25 per share. This represents a $9.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.23%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, November 18th. Amgen’s payout ratio is 115.24%.

Institutional Trading of Amgen

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Capital Performance Advisors LLP purchased a new position in shares of Amgen during the third quarter worth about $25,000. Hershey Financial Advisers LLC purchased a new position in shares of Amgen in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Legacy Investment Solutions LLC acquired a new position in shares of Amgen in the third quarter valued at approximately $29,000. nVerses Capital LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Amgen during the second quarter worth approximately $31,000. Finally, Bbjs Financial Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Amgen during the second quarter worth $33,000. 76.50% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.