Sumitomo Life Insurance Co. Has $1.50 Million Holdings in Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN)

Sumitomo Life Insurance Co. cut its position in shares of Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN) by 3.0% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 5,749 shares of the medical research company’s stock after selling 179 shares during the period. Sumitomo Life Insurance Co.’s holdings in Amgen were worth $1,498,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Pathway Financial Advisers LLC lifted its stake in Amgen by 33,125.4% in the third quarter. Pathway Financial Advisers LLC now owns 4,460,181 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $1,437,115,000 after acquiring an additional 4,446,757 shares during the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Amgen by 6,812.4% in the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 2,523,387 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $8,130,610,000 after purchasing an additional 2,486,882 shares during the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its holdings in Amgen by 561.5% in the third quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 1,539,733 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $496,117,000 after purchasing an additional 1,306,982 shares in the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB increased its position in Amgen by 40.7% during the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 2,338,665 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $609,526,000 after buying an additional 676,598 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Janus Henderson Group PLC raised its holdings in Amgen by 11.7% during 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 buying an additional 538,545 shares in the last quarter. 76.50% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

AMGN has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. TD Cowen increased their price objective on Amgen from $381.00 to $383.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, October 21st. StockNews.com downgraded Amgen from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. Leerink Partners reduced their price objective on shares of Amgen from $349.00 to $302.00 in a research note on Wednesday, November 27th. Barclays raised their target price on shares of Amgen from $300.00 to $315.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, October 7th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group reissued a “buy” rating and set a $380.00 target price on shares of Amgen in a research report on Tuesday, November 12th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have issued a hold rating, thirteen have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Amgen currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $314.00.

Amgen Stock Up 0.5 %

NASDAQ AMGN opened at $281.68 on Thursday. Amgen Inc. has a 1-year low of $253.30 and a 1-year high of $346.85. The company has a current ratio of 1.32, a quick ratio of 0.96 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 7.55. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $271.48 and its two-hundred day moving average is $305.15. The company has a market capitalization of $151.41 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.07, a PEG ratio of 2.78 and a beta of 0.56.

Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The medical research company reported $5.58 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $5.11 by $0.47. The business had revenue of $8.50 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.50 billion. Amgen had a return on equity of 168.35% and a net margin of 13.00%. Amgen’s quarterly revenue was up 23.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $4.96 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that Amgen Inc. will post 19.56 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Amgen Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 7th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 14th will be issued a $2.38 dividend. This is a positive change from Amgen’s previous quarterly dividend of $2.25. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 14th. This represents a $9.52 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.38%. Amgen’s dividend payout ratio is presently 115.24%.

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.