Hunter Associates Investment Management LLC Has $14 Million Stock Holdings in Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN)

Hunter Associates Investment Management LLC decreased its position in shares of Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN) by 0.5% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 53,748 shares of the medical research company’s stock after selling 250 shares during the quarter. Amgen accounts for 2.1% of Hunter Associates Investment Management LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 9th largest holding. Hunter Associates Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Amgen were worth $14,001,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. State Street Corp lifted its stake in shares of Amgen by 1.2% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 29,317,018 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $9,446,236,000 after buying an additional 345,537 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Amgen by 0.9% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 12,122,889 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $3,893,771,000 after buying an additional 103,851 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in Amgen by 2.4% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 10,532,629 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $3,393,718,000 after acquiring an additional 251,876 shares during the period. Janus Henderson Group PLC lifted its position in shares of Amgen by 11.7% in the third quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 5,143,330 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $1,657,183,000 after acquiring an additional 538,545 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Pathway Financial Advisers LLC boosted its stake in shares of Amgen by 33,125.4% in the third quarter. Pathway Financial Advisers LLC now owns 4,460,181 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $1,437,115,000 after acquiring an additional 4,446,757 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 76.50% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts recently issued reports on AMGN shares. Citigroup decreased their target price on Amgen from $310.00 to $295.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price objective on shares of Amgen from $335.00 to $280.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, January 10th. Bank of America restated an “underperform” rating and set a $256.00 target price on shares of Amgen in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. Piper Sandler Companies reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $310.00 price target on shares of Amgen in a report on Thursday, January 2nd. Finally, Wolfe Research assumed coverage on shares of Amgen in a report on Friday, November 15th. They set a “peer perform” rating for the company. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have given a hold rating, thirteen have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $314.00.

Amgen Trading Up 0.8 %

Shares of NASDAQ AMGN opened at $284.02 on Friday. Amgen Inc. has a 1-year low of $253.30 and a 1-year high of $346.85. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $271.35 and a 200 day moving average price of $304.99. The stock has a market capitalization of $152.67 billion, a P/E ratio of 36.37, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.85 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 released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The medical research company reported $5.58 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $5.11 by $0.47. Amgen had a net margin of 13.00% and a return on equity of 168.35%. The business had revenue of $8.50 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.50 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $4.96 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 23.2% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts expect that Amgen Inc. will post 19.56 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Amgen Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 7th. Investors of record on Friday, February 14th will be given a dividend of $2.38 per share. This is a boost from Amgen’s previous quarterly dividend of $2.25. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 14th. This represents a $9.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.35%. 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.