Johnson Financial Group Inc. Trims Stake in Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN)

Johnson Financial Group Inc. cut its stake in shares of Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN) by 17.9% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 9,666 shares of the medical research company’s stock after selling 2,104 shares during the quarter. Johnson Financial Group Inc.’s holdings in Amgen were worth $2,784,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. boosted its stake in Amgen by 1.4% in the fourth quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 381,262 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $109,811,000 after acquiring an additional 5,125 shares in the last quarter. Nixon Peabody Trust Co. acquired a new position in Amgen during the fourth quarter valued at $447,000. Skopos Labs Inc. purchased a new position in Amgen in the fourth quarter valued at $990,000. Congress Wealth Management LLC DE increased its holdings in Amgen by 8.9% in the fourth quarter. Congress Wealth Management LLC DE now owns 58,047 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $16,719,000 after buying an additional 4,730 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Hoylecohen LLC increased its stake in shares of Amgen by 34.9% during the fourth quarter. Hoylecohen LLC now owns 4,709 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $1,356,000 after purchasing an additional 1,218 shares in the last quarter. 76.50% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on the stock. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Amgen from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, May 3rd. Oppenheimer restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $350.00 price objective on shares of Amgen in a report on Thursday, February 1st. Royal Bank of Canada cut their target price on shares of Amgen from $332.00 to $328.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, May 3rd. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price objective on shares of Amgen from $313.00 to $350.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 7th. Finally, Raymond James assumed coverage on shares of Amgen in a research report on Thursday, March 28th. They issued a “market perform” rating on the stock. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $305.65.

Insider Activity at Amgen

In other Amgen news, SVP Nancy A. Grygiel sold 2,117 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $313.09, for a total transaction of $662,811.53. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 9,883 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,094,268.47. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. 0.69% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Amgen Stock Performance

Shares of Amgen stock traded down $0.66 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $305.84. The company had a trading volume of 2,425,809 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,831,793. Amgen Inc. has a 1-year low of $211.71 and a 1-year high of $329.72. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 11.96, a current ratio of 1.42 and a quick ratio of 0.98. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $285.02 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $285.51. The stock has a market cap of $164.06 billion, a PE ratio of 43.69, a P/E/G ratio of 2.80 and a beta of 0.60.

Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 2nd. The medical research company reported $3.96 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.76 by $0.20. Amgen had a return on equity of 156.21% and a net margin of 12.74%. The company had revenue of $7.45 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $7.45 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $3.98 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 22.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts predict that Amgen Inc. will post 19.46 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Amgen Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 7th. Investors of record on Friday, May 17th will be issued a $2.25 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 16th. This represents a $9.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.94%. Amgen’s dividend payout ratio is 128.57%.

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.