M&G Plc Increases Holdings in Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN)

M&G Plc raised its stake in shares of Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN) by 35.6% in the second quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 36,449 shares of the medical research company’s stock after buying an additional 9,572 shares during the quarter. M&G Plc’s holdings in Amgen were worth $11,372,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in AMGN. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Amgen by 6.2% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 52,088,210 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $14,809,720,000 after purchasing an additional 3,045,657 shares during the last quarter. Capital International Investors raised its stake in shares of Amgen by 547.8% in 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 purchasing an additional 5,923,915 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its stake in shares of Amgen by 3.9% in the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 6,564,710 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $1,890,769,000 after purchasing an additional 243,720 shares during the last quarter. Royal Bank of Canada raised its stake in shares of Amgen by 14.8% in the fourth quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 5,831,624 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $1,679,625,000 after purchasing an additional 751,947 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Amgen during the fourth quarter valued at $1,556,912,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 76.50% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

AMGN has been the subject of a number of research reports. TD Cowen upped their price objective on Amgen from $360.00 to $381.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. StockNews.com upgraded Amgen from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, May 3rd. Wells Fargo & Company cut Amgen from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $320.00 to $335.00 in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. UBS Group upped their price objective on Amgen from $284.00 to $307.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, May 3rd. Finally, Bank of America boosted their price target on Amgen from $325.00 to $330.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 7th. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $326.89.

Amgen Stock Performance

NASDAQ AMGN opened at $323.45 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $173.51 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 46.21, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.78 and a beta of 0.58. The company has a quick ratio of 0.98, a current ratio of 1.42 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 11.96. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $318.96 and a 200-day moving average price of $298.94. Amgen Inc. has a twelve month low of $248.38 and a twelve month high of $346.85.

Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, August 6th. The medical research company reported $4.97 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.01 by ($0.04). Amgen had a return on equity of 156.21% and a net margin of 12.74%. The business had revenue of $8.39 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.35 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $5.00 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 20.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Amgen Inc. will post 19.5 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Amgen Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, August 6th. Investors of record on Friday, August 16th were paid a dividend of $2.25 per share. This represents a $9.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.78%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 16th. Amgen’s payout ratio is presently 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.