NBW Capital LLC Acquires 212 Shares of Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN)

NBW Capital LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN) by 24.8% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,066 shares of the medical research company’s stock after purchasing an additional 212 shares during the quarter. NBW Capital LLC’s holdings in Amgen were worth $303,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Amgen by 6.2% during the first 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 period. Capital International Investors boosted its stake in Amgen by 547.8% during the first quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 7,005,269 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $1,991,738,000 after buying an additional 5,923,915 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its holdings in Amgen by 3.9% in 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 raised 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Amgen during the 4th quarter worth about $1,556,912,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 76.50% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have recently commented on AMGN. Barclays raised Amgen from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $230.00 to $300.00 in a report on Friday, May 3rd. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price target on Amgen from $328.00 to $332.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, June 14th. Argus upped their target price on shares of Amgen from $300.00 to $340.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, June 27th. Morgan Stanley dropped their price target on Amgen from $310.00 to $303.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, July 11th. Finally, UBS Group boosted their price objective on shares of Amgen from $284.00 to $307.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, May 3rd. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $312.63.

Amgen Stock Performance

NASDAQ:AMGN traded down $1.54 on Friday, hitting $333.99. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 2,106,216 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,890,833. Amgen Inc. has a one year low of $228.21 and a one year high of $346.85. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $316.30 and a two-hundred day moving average of $298.30. The company has a current ratio of 1.42, a quick ratio of 0.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 11.96. The firm has a market capitalization of $179.16 billion, a P/E ratio of 47.71, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.78 and a beta of 0.58.

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

Amgen Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, August 6th. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 16th will be given a $2.25 dividend. This represents a $9.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.69%. Amgen’s payout ratio is 128.57%.

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.