Valmark Advisers Inc. Purchases 45 Shares of Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN)

Valmark Advisers Inc. grew its stake in shares of Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN) by 0.6% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 8,036 shares of the medical research company’s stock after buying an additional 45 shares during the quarter. Valmark Advisers Inc.’s holdings in Amgen were worth $2,315,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of Amgen by 1.7% during the third quarter. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. now owns 11,658 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $3,133,000 after buying an additional 193 shares during the last quarter. Diversified Trust Co grew its stake in shares of Amgen by 76.8% during the fourth quarter. Diversified Trust Co now owns 37,695 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $10,857,000 after buying an additional 16,376 shares during the last quarter. Nicolet Advisory Services LLC grew its stake in shares of Amgen by 4.4% during the third quarter. Nicolet Advisory Services LLC now owns 2,805 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $745,000 after buying an additional 117 shares during the last quarter. Platform Technology Partners grew its stake in shares of Amgen by 7.4% during the third quarter. Platform Technology Partners now owns 5,830 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $1,567,000 after buying an additional 402 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Traynor Capital Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of Amgen by 9.5% during the fourth quarter. Traynor Capital Management Inc. now owns 18,941 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $5,455,000 after buying an additional 1,650 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 76.50% of the company’s stock.

Amgen Stock Performance

Shares of AMGN stock traded up $0.60 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $269.98. The company had a trading volume of 2,436,959 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,035,139. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $275.10 and a 200-day moving average price of $281.45. Amgen Inc. has a one year low of $211.71 and a one year high of $329.72. The firm has a market cap of $144.81 billion, a PE ratio of 21.62, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.60 and a beta of 0.58. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 10.14, a quick ratio of 1.13 and a current ratio of 1.65.

Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 6th. The medical research company reported $4.71 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.66 by $0.05. Amgen had a net margin of 23.83% and a return on equity of 154.27%. The firm had revenue of $8.20 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.13 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $4.09 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 19.8% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts predict that Amgen Inc. will post 19.43 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Amgen Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 7th. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 17th will be paid a $2.25 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 16th. This represents a $9.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.33%. Amgen’s dividend payout ratio is presently 72.06%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently commented on AMGN. Raymond James began coverage on shares of Amgen in a report on Thursday, March 28th. They set a “market perform” rating on the stock. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $329.00 target price on shares of Amgen in a report on Wednesday, April 3rd. Morgan Stanley dropped their target price on shares of Amgen from $281.00 to $278.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, February 7th. TD Cowen dropped their target price on shares of Amgen from $370.00 to $360.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 17th. Finally, Oppenheimer restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $350.00 target price on shares of Amgen in a report on Thursday, February 1st. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $296.95.

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.