Amgen’s (AMGN) Outperform Rating Reaffirmed at William Blair

William Blair reiterated their outperform rating on shares of Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) in a report released on Tuesday morning,RTT News reports.

AMGN has been the subject of several other research reports. UBS Group cut their price target on Amgen from $335.00 to $326.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Jefferies Financial Group restated a “buy” rating and issued a $380.00 price target (up previously from $375.00) on shares of Amgen in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $362.00 price target on shares of Amgen in a research note on Thursday, September 26th. Bank of America lifted their price target on Amgen from $325.00 to $330.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. Finally, Truist Financial lowered Amgen from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $320.00 to $333.00 in a research note on Monday, October 14th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have assigned a hold rating, eleven have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $333.57.

Amgen Stock Performance

Shares of AMGN stock opened at $283.61 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $152.45 billion, a PE ratio of 36.44, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.69 and a beta of 0.60. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $321.59 and a 200-day simple moving average of $318.00. The company has a quick ratio of 0.96, a current ratio of 1.32 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 7.55. Amgen has a 52-week low of $260.52 and a 52-week high of $346.85.

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

Amgen Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 9th. Stockholders of record on Monday, November 18th will be given a $2.25 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, November 18th. This represents a $9.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.17%. Amgen’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 115.24%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Amgen by 6.2% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 52,088,210 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $14,809,720,000 after acquiring an additional 3,045,657 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its holdings in Amgen by 1.2% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 29,317,018 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $9,446,236,000 after acquiring an additional 345,537 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its holdings in Amgen by 2.4% in 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 last quarter. Capital International Investors lifted its holdings in Amgen by 547.8% in the first quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 7,005,269 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $1,991,738,000 after acquiring an additional 5,923,915 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Janus Henderson Group PLC lifted its holdings in 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 during the last quarter. 76.50% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.