Aptus Capital Advisors LLC Buys 5,515 Shares of Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN)

Aptus Capital Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN) by 25.4% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 27,233 shares of the medical research company’s stock after acquiring an additional 5,515 shares during the quarter. Aptus Capital Advisors LLC’s holdings in Amgen were worth $8,775,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of AMGN. Capital Performance Advisors LLP purchased a new position in shares of Amgen in the 3rd quarter worth $25,000. Hershey Financial Advisers LLC purchased a new position in shares of Amgen during the 2nd quarter worth about $30,000. nVerses Capital LLC bought a new stake in Amgen during the 2nd quarter valued at about $31,000. Bbjs Financial Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Amgen during the 2nd quarter valued at about $33,000. Finally, Matrix Trust Co bought a new stake in Amgen during the 3rd quarter valued at about $36,000. Institutional investors own 76.50% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on AMGN. Robert W. Baird reiterated an “underperform” rating and set a $215.00 price objective on shares of Amgen in a report on Wednesday, September 25th. UBS Group reduced their price target on shares of Amgen from $335.00 to $326.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $362.00 price target on shares of Amgen in a report on Thursday, September 26th. Cantor Fitzgerald restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $405.00 price target on shares of Amgen in a report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Finally, William Blair restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Amgen in a report on Tuesday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have given a hold rating, eleven have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Amgen currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $333.50.

Amgen Stock Performance

NASDAQ:AMGN opened at $298.84 on Wednesday. The company has a fifty day moving average of $323.37 and a two-hundred day moving average of $318.07. The stock has a market capitalization of $160.64 billion, a PE ratio of 38.26, a P/E/G ratio of 2.90 and a beta of 0.60. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 7.55, a quick ratio of 0.96 and a current ratio of 1.32. Amgen Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $260.52 and a fifty-two week high of $346.85.

Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 30th. The medical research company reported $5.58 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.11 by $0.47. The firm had revenue of $8.50 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.50 billion. Amgen had a net margin of 13.00% and a return on equity of 168.35%. Amgen’s quarterly revenue was up 23.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $4.96 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts forecast that Amgen Inc. will post 19.51 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Amgen Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 9th. Investors of record on Monday, November 18th will be paid a dividend of $2.25 per share. This represents a $9.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.01%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, November 18th. Amgen’s payout ratio is currently 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.