Janney Montgomery Scott LLC Sells 58,256 Shares of Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN)

Janney Montgomery Scott LLC trimmed its stake in shares of Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN) by 13.4% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 376,462 shares of the medical research company’s stock after selling 58,256 shares during the quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC’s holdings in Amgen were worth $98,121,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the stock. Capital Performance Advisors LLP bought a new stake in shares of Amgen in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $25,000. Legacy Investment Solutions LLC bought a new stake in shares of Amgen in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $29,000. Hershey Financial Advisers LLC bought a new stake in shares of Amgen in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $30,000. Matrix Trust Co bought a new stake in shares of Amgen in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $36,000. Finally, Livelsberger Financial Advisory bought a new stake in shares of Amgen in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $56,000. 76.50% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on AMGN shares. Royal Bank of Canada cut their price objective on Amgen from $360.00 to $330.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, November 27th. Bank of America restated an “underperform” rating and issued a $256.00 target price on shares of Amgen in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. TD Cowen raised their target price on Amgen from $381.00 to $383.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, October 21st. Wolfe Research initiated coverage on Amgen in a research note on Friday, November 15th. They issued a “peer perform” rating for the company. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $405.00 target price on shares of Amgen in a research note on Tuesday, October 22nd. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have assigned a hold rating, thirteen have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Amgen presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $314.91.

Amgen Stock Performance

Shares of AMGN opened at $273.44 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 7.55, a current ratio of 1.32 and a quick ratio of 0.96. Amgen Inc. has a one year low of $253.30 and a one year high of $346.85. The firm has a market capitalization of $146.98 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.01, a PEG ratio of 2.78 and a beta of 0.56. The business has a fifty day moving average of $272.47 and a 200 day moving average of $306.67.

Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 30th. The medical research company reported $5.58 EPS for the quarter, topping 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 company had revenue of $8.50 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.50 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $4.96 earnings per share. Amgen’s revenue was up 23.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Amgen Inc. will post 19.57 EPS for the current year.

Amgen Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 7th. Investors of record on Friday, February 14th will be issued a $2.38 dividend. This represents a $9.52 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.48%. This is a positive change from Amgen’s previous quarterly dividend of $2.25. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 14th. Amgen’s dividend payout ratio is currently 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.