HighPoint Advisor Group LLC Buys New Position in Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN)

HighPoint Advisor Group LLC bought a new position in Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund bought 10,924 shares of the medical research company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,068,000.

Several other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in AMGN. Norges Bank bought a new position in Amgen during the fourth quarter worth $1,556,912,000. International Assets Investment Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Amgen during the 4th quarter worth about $4,589,900,000. Royal Bank of Canada grew its stake in shares of Amgen by 14.8% in 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. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. grew its stake in shares of Amgen by 486.6% in the 4th quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 899,232 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $258,997,000 after buying an additional 745,929 shares during the period. Finally, abrdn plc increased its position in Amgen by 150.4% in the 4th quarter. abrdn plc now owns 1,043,609 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $300,580,000 after buying an additional 626,810 shares in the last quarter. 76.50% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

AMGN has been the subject of a number of research reports. Truist Financial reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $320.00 price objective on shares of Amgen in a research note on Friday, April 12th. Barclays upgraded shares of Amgen from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $230.00 to $300.00 in a report on Friday, May 3rd. UBS Group boosted their target price on shares of Amgen from $284.00 to $307.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, May 3rd. Raymond James began coverage on shares of Amgen in a report on Thursday, March 28th. They issued a “market perform” rating on the stock. Finally, Mizuho lifted their price target on Amgen from $223.00 to $235.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 9th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Amgen presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $305.85.

Amgen Stock Performance

Amgen stock traded down $0.28 during trading on Tuesday, hitting $303.00. The stock had a trading volume of 187,754 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,726,858. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $293.45 and its two-hundred day moving average is $289.82. Amgen Inc. has a 1 year low of $218.44 and a 1 year high of $329.72. The stock has a market cap of $162.54 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 43.65, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.70 and a beta of 0.60. The company has a quick ratio of 0.98, a current ratio of 1.42 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 11.96.

Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 2nd. The medical research company reported $3.96 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.76 by $0.20. Amgen had a return on equity of 156.21% and a net margin of 12.74%. The firm had revenue of $7.45 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $7.45 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $3.98 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 22.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts predict that Amgen Inc. will post 19.47 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other Amgen news, SVP Nancy A. Grygiel sold 2,117 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, May 3rd. The stock was 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 at this hyperlink. Insiders own 0.69% of the company’s stock.

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.