Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN) Shares Sold by Epoch Investment Partners Inc.

Epoch Investment Partners Inc. cut its holdings in Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN) by 3.9% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 66,160 shares of the medical research company’s stock after selling 2,710 shares during the period. Epoch Investment Partners Inc.’s holdings in Amgen were worth $18,811,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in Amgen by 6.2% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 52,088,210 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $14,809,720,000 after acquiring an additional 3,045,657 shares during the last quarter. Capital International Investors grew its stake in shares of Amgen by 547.8% during the 1st quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 7,005,269 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $1,991,738,000 after buying an additional 5,923,915 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its stake in shares of Amgen by 3.9% during the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 6,564,710 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $1,890,769,000 after buying an additional 243,720 shares during the period. Royal Bank of Canada grew its stake in shares of Amgen by 14.8% during the 4th quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 5,831,624 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $1,679,625,000 after buying an additional 751,947 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Amgen during the 4th quarter valued at $1,556,912,000. 76.50% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on AMGN. Morgan Stanley lowered their price objective on shares of Amgen from $310.00 to $303.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, July 11th. StockNews.com raised shares of Amgen from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, May 3rd. TD Cowen lowered their price objective on shares of Amgen from $370.00 to $360.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 17th. BMO Capital Markets upped their price target on shares of Amgen from $336.00 to $355.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, May 3rd. Finally, Mizuho upped their price target on shares of Amgen from $223.00 to $235.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 9th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $312.63.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, SVP Nancy A. Grygiel sold 2,117 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $313.09, for a total transaction of $662,811.53. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 9,883 shares in the company, valued at $3,094,268.47. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 0.69% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Amgen Stock Up 0.2 %

Shares of Amgen stock traded up $0.55 during trading on Friday, reaching $334.85. The company had a trading volume of 1,515,471 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,821,447. The company has a market cap of $179.62 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 47.84, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.78 and a beta of 0.58. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $313.96 and its 200-day moving average is $297.29. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 11.96, a quick ratio of 0.98 and a current ratio of 1.42. Amgen Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $228.21 and a fifty-two week high of $346.85.

Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, May 2nd. The medical research company reported $3.96 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.76 by $0.20. The business had revenue of $7.45 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $7.45 billion. Amgen had a net margin of 12.74% and a return on equity of 156.21%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 22.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $3.98 EPS. On average, analysts anticipate that Amgen Inc. will post 19.5 EPS for the current year.

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.