Connecticut Wealth Management LLC Grows Holdings in Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN)

Connecticut Wealth Management LLC boosted its position in Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN) by 17.1% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 2,064 shares of the medical research company’s stock after buying an additional 301 shares during the quarter. Connecticut Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Amgen were worth $594,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of AMGN. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. boosted its position in Amgen by 1.7% in 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 purchasing an additional 193 shares during the last quarter. Diversified Trust Co grew its position in Amgen by 76.8% during the fourth quarter. Diversified Trust Co now owns 37,695 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $10,857,000 after buying an additional 16,376 shares during the period. Nicolet Advisory Services LLC increased its holdings in 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 increased its holdings in 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, Global Wealth Management Investment Advisory Inc. raised its position in Amgen by 2.4% in the fourth quarter. Global Wealth Management Investment Advisory Inc. now owns 4,733 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $1,363,000 after acquiring an additional 109 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 76.50% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other Amgen news, SVP Nancy A. Grygiel sold 2,117 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $313.09, for a total value of $662,811.53. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 9,883 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,094,268.47. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Corporate insiders own 0.46% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have recently weighed in on AMGN shares. SVB Leerink downgraded shares of Amgen from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and reduced their target price for the company from $324.00 to $318.00 in a research report on Wednesday, February 7th. Raymond James initiated coverage on Amgen in a research note on Thursday, March 28th. They issued a “market perform” rating on the stock. Leerink Partnrs downgraded shares of Amgen from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 7th. William Blair upgraded shares of Amgen from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday. Finally, Morgan Stanley upped their price target on shares of Amgen from $271.00 to $310.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $305.05.

Amgen Price Performance

AMGN traded up $32.90 on Friday, reaching $311.29. The company had a trading volume of 9,644,682 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,279,398. Amgen Inc. has a 52-week low of $211.71 and a 52-week high of $329.72. The company has a market cap of $166.97 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 44.47, a P/E/G ratio of 3.01 and a beta of 0.60. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 10.14, a quick ratio of 1.13 and a current ratio of 1.65. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $274.95 and a 200 day simple moving average of $281.46.

Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) last posted 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 145.62%. The firm had revenue of $7.45 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $7.45 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $3.98 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 22.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Amgen Inc. will post 19.46 EPS for the current year.

Amgen Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 7th. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 17th will be issued a $2.25 dividend. This represents a $9.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.89%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 16th. Amgen’s payout ratio is currently 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.