Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN) Shares Bought by Alta Advisers Ltd

Alta Advisers Ltd boosted its holdings in Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN - Free Report) by 49.7% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 2,710 shares of the medical research company's stock after acquiring an additional 900 shares during the quarter. Alta Advisers Ltd's holdings in Amgen were worth $844,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of AMGN. KPP Advisory Services LLC grew its position in shares of Amgen by 87.1% during the 1st quarter. KPP Advisory Services LLC now owns 5,833 shares of the medical research company's stock valued at $1,817,000 after acquiring an additional 2,716 shares during the period. Advisor Resource Council bought a new position in shares of Amgen during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $1,331,000. DLK Investment Management LLC raised its stake in Amgen by 7.3% during the 1st quarter. DLK Investment Management LLC now owns 20,491 shares of the medical research company's stock worth $6,384,000 after acquiring an additional 1,387 shares during the period. Aire Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Amgen by 26.3% in the fourth quarter. Aire Advisors LLC now owns 13,280 shares of the medical research company's stock worth $3,461,000 after purchasing an additional 2,762 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Beacon Harbor Wealth Advisors Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Amgen during the 4th quarter valued at $3,531,000. 76.50% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, SVP Rachna Khosla sold 1,500 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, June 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $289.68, for a total transaction of $434,520.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president owned 8,162 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $2,364,368.16. This trade represents a 15.52% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Company insiders own 0.69% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have commented on AMGN shares. Royal Bank Of Canada dropped their price objective on shares of Amgen from $324.00 to $320.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a report on Friday, May 2nd. Wall Street Zen upgraded Amgen from a "buy" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Sunday, May 18th. Erste Group Bank lowered shares of Amgen from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 8th. UBS Group reissued a "neutral" rating and issued a $315.00 price objective (down from $319.00) on shares of Amgen in a research report on Friday, May 2nd. Finally, Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an "equal weight" rating on shares of Amgen in a research note on Friday, May 2nd. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have given a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $307.82.

Amgen Stock Performance

Shares of AMGN traded up $5.87 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, reaching $296.39. 995,525 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,830,621. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.70, a current ratio of 1.17 and a quick ratio of 0.88. The stock has a market capitalization of $159.37 billion, a PE ratio of 27.05, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.53 and a beta of 0.49. Amgen Inc. has a 52-week low of $253.30 and a 52-week high of $346.85. The business's fifty day simple moving average is $281.37 and its 200-day simple moving average is $286.28.

Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 1st. The medical research company reported $4.90 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $4.18 by $0.72. The firm had revenue of $8.15 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.05 billion. Amgen had a return on equity of 176.11% and a net margin of 17.39%. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 9.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $3.96 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts expect that Amgen Inc. will post 20.62 earnings per share for the current year.

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.