Pacific Capital Wealth Advisors Inc. Decreases Holdings in Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN)

Pacific Capital Wealth Advisors Inc. reduced its stake in shares of Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN) by 9.9% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 691 shares of the medical research company’s stock after selling 76 shares during the period. Pacific Capital Wealth Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Amgen were worth $180,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Magnolia Capital Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Amgen in the second quarter worth $486,000. NewEdge Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Amgen by 26.9% in the 2nd quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 63,809 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $19,937,000 after purchasing an additional 13,542 shares during the period. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. increased its position in shares of Amgen by 3.8% during the second quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 51,851 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $16,199,000 after buying an additional 1,920 shares during the period. Invst LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Amgen in the second quarter worth about $1,005,000. Finally, Regal Investment Advisors LLC grew its stake in Amgen by 1.5% during the second quarter. Regal Investment Advisors LLC now owns 4,171 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $1,303,000 after acquiring an additional 63 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 76.50% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have recently commented on AMGN shares. Bank of America restated an “underperform” rating and set a $256.00 price target on shares of Amgen in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price objective on Amgen from $335.00 to $280.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, January 10th. Piper Sandler cut their target price on Amgen from $344.00 to $310.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, January 2nd. StockNews.com cut Amgen from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. Finally, Leerink Partners dropped their target price on Amgen from $349.00 to $302.00 in a report on Wednesday, November 27th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have issued a hold rating, thirteen have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Amgen currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $314.65.

Amgen Stock Performance

Shares of Amgen stock opened at $282.95 on Tuesday. Amgen Inc. has a 1 year low of $253.30 and a 1 year high of $346.85. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $271.39 and its 200 day moving average is $305.81. The stock has a market cap of $152.09 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.23, a PEG ratio of 2.78 and a beta of 0.56. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 7.55, a current ratio of 1.32 and a quick ratio of 0.96.

Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The medical research company reported $5.58 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.11 by $0.47. Amgen had a net margin of 13.00% and a return on equity of 168.35%. The firm had revenue of $8.50 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.50 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $4.96 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 23.2% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Amgen Inc. will post 19.56 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Amgen Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 7th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 14th will be issued a dividend of $2.38 per share. This is an increase from Amgen’s previous quarterly dividend of $2.25. This represents a $9.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.36%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 14th. Amgen’s dividend payout ratio is presently 115.24%.

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.