Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) Given New $310.00 Price Target at Piper Sandler

Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) had its target price cut by Piper Sandler from $344.00 to $310.00 in a research report sent to investors on Thursday morning,Benzinga reports. They currently have an overweight rating on the medical research company’s stock.

Several other research firms have also recently commented on AMGN. William Blair restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Amgen in a research note on Tuesday, November 12th. Royal Bank of Canada reduced their price target on Amgen from $360.00 to $330.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, November 27th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Amgen from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. Redburn Partners cut their price target on shares of Amgen from $200.00 to $195.00 in a research note on Wednesday, November 27th. Finally, Bank of America reiterated an “underperform” rating and issued a $256.00 target price on shares of Amgen in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have given a hold rating, thirteen have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $318.83.

Amgen Trading Up 0.7 %

NASDAQ:AMGN opened at $261.22 on Thursday. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $284.63 and its 200-day simple moving average is $310.41. Amgen has a fifty-two week low of $253.30 and a fifty-two week high of $346.85. 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 stock has a market capitalization of $140.41 billion, a PE ratio of 33.45, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.91 and a beta of 0.56.

Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The medical research company reported $5.58 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $5.11 by $0.47. Amgen had a net margin of 13.00% and a return on equity of 168.35%. The company had revenue of $8.50 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.50 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $4.96 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 23.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts expect that Amgen will post 19.53 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Amgen Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 7th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 14th will be given a $2.38 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 14th. This is a boost from Amgen’s previous quarterly dividend of $2.25. This represents a $9.52 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.64%. Amgen’s payout ratio is presently 121.90%.

Institutional Trading of Amgen

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Capital Performance Advisors LLP acquired a new position in Amgen during the third quarter worth about $25,000. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC bought a new position in Amgen in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Legacy Investment Solutions LLC acquired a new stake in Amgen in the third quarter valued at approximately $29,000. Hershey Financial Advisers LLC bought a new stake in shares of Amgen during the second quarter worth $30,000. Finally, nVerses Capital LLC acquired a new position in shares of Amgen during the second quarter worth $31,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 76.50% of the company’s stock.

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.