Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) Upgraded by Barclays to “Equal Weight”

Barclays upgraded shares of Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) from an underweight rating to an equal weight rating in a research report sent to investors on Friday morning, MarketBeat.com reports. Barclays currently has $300.00 price target on the medical research company’s stock, up from their prior price target of $230.00.

Several other equities analysts have also recently issued reports on the stock. Raymond James started coverage on shares of Amgen in a research note on Thursday, March 28th. They issued a market perform rating on the stock. Oppenheimer reissued an outperform rating and issued a $350.00 price objective on shares of Amgen in a research note on Thursday, February 1st. Truist Financial reissued a buy rating and issued a $320.00 price objective on shares of Amgen in a research note on Friday, April 12th. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price objective on shares of Amgen from $313.00 to $350.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 7th. Finally, Leerink Partnrs lowered shares of Amgen from an outperform rating to a market perform rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 7th. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Amgen currently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $305.05.

Amgen Stock Performance

Shares of Amgen stock traded up $32.90 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $311.29. 9,644,682 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,279,398. The company has a current ratio of 1.65, a quick ratio of 1.13 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 10.14. The business has a 50-day moving average of $274.51 and a 200-day moving average of $281.33. Amgen has a 1 year low of $211.71 and a 1 year high of $329.72. The stock has a market capitalization of $166.97 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 44.47, a P/E/G ratio of 2.69 and a beta of 0.60.

Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 2nd. The medical research company reported $3.96 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.76 by $0.20. The company had revenue of $7.45 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $7.45 billion. Amgen had a net margin of 12.74% and a return on equity of 145.62%. Amgen’s revenue was up 22.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $3.98 EPS. As a group, analysts expect that Amgen will post 19.43 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Amgen Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 7th. Investors of record on Friday, May 17th will be given a $2.25 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 16th. This represents a $9.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.89%. Amgen’s dividend payout ratio is presently 128.57%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Amgen news, SVP Nancy A. Grygiel sold 2,117 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $313.09, for a total value of $662,811.53. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 9,883 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,094,268.47. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Insiders own 0.46% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of AMGN. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Amgen by 0.3% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 49,035,981 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $13,178,910,000 after purchasing an additional 165,636 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp increased its stake in shares of Amgen by 3.8% during the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 6,977,625 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $1,875,306,000 after acquiring an additional 255,463 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its holdings in shares of Amgen by 3.9% during the 4th 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 acquiring an additional 243,720 shares during the period. Royal Bank of Canada lifted its holdings in shares of Amgen by 14.8% during the 4th quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 5,831,624 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $1,679,625,000 after acquiring an additional 751,947 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Amgen in the fourth quarter worth approximately $1,556,912,000. 76.50% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.