Brookstone Capital Management Acquires 1,462 Shares of Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN)

Brookstone Capital Management grew its stake in shares of Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN) by 8.2% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 19,252 shares of the medical research company’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,462 shares during the quarter. Brookstone Capital Management’s holdings in Amgen were worth $5,018,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Swiss National Bank increased its position in shares of Amgen by 0.3% during the third quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 1,592,233 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $513,033,000 after acquiring an additional 5,500 shares during the period. Asset Advisors Investment Management LLC raised its position in Amgen by 9.0% during the 3rd quarter. Asset Advisors Investment Management LLC now owns 35,934 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $11,578,000 after purchasing an additional 2,954 shares in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Amgen by 6.0% in the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 635,172 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $204,659,000 after buying an additional 35,785 shares during the period. First Horizon Advisors Inc. grew its position in shares of Amgen by 3.2% during the 3rd quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 60,769 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $19,581,000 after buying an additional 1,872 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Summit Trail Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Amgen by 40.1% during the third quarter. Summit Trail Advisors LLC now owns 7,552 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $2,433,000 after buying an additional 2,163 shares during the period. 76.50% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Sanford C. Bernstein initiated coverage on shares of Amgen in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $380.00 price objective for the company. UBS Group lowered their price target on shares of Amgen from $335.00 to $326.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Piper Sandler Companies reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $310.00 price objective on shares of Amgen in a report on Thursday, January 2nd. Citigroup lowered their target price on Amgen from $335.00 to $310.00 in a report on Wednesday, November 27th. Finally, William Blair reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Amgen in a report on Tuesday, November 12th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have assigned a hold rating, thirteen have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Amgen currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $314.91.

Amgen Price Performance

Shares of AMGN opened at $267.10 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 7.55, a current ratio of 1.32 and a quick ratio of 0.96. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $277.12 and its 200-day moving average price is $308.03. Amgen Inc. has a 1-year low of $253.30 and a 1-year high of $346.85. The firm has a market capitalization of $143.58 billion, a PE ratio of 34.20, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.91 and a beta of 0.56.

Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The medical research company reported $5.58 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $5.11 by $0.47. Amgen had a return on equity of 168.35% and a net margin of 13.00%. The business had revenue of $8.50 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.50 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $4.96 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 23.2% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts predict that Amgen Inc. will post 19.53 EPS for the current year.

Amgen Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 7th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 14th will be paid a dividend of $2.38 per share. This represents a $9.52 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.56%. This is a boost from Amgen’s previous quarterly dividend of $2.25. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 14th. Amgen’s payout ratio is presently 121.90%.

Amgen 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.