Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN) Position Lifted by Beacon Investment Advisory Services Inc.

Beacon Investment Advisory Services Inc. lifted its position in shares of Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN - Free Report) by 7.9% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 45,111 shares of the medical research company's stock after buying an additional 3,287 shares during the quarter. Beacon Investment Advisory Services Inc.'s holdings in Amgen were worth $14,054,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. First Pacific Financial boosted its stake in shares of Amgen by 304.5% during the first quarter. First Pacific Financial now owns 89 shares of the medical research company's stock valued at $28,000 after acquiring an additional 67 shares during the last quarter. Pinney & Scofield Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Amgen during the 4th quarter worth about $26,000. Ritter Daniher Financial Advisory LLC DE grew its holdings in shares of Amgen by 66.2% during the fourth quarter. Ritter Daniher Financial Advisory LLC DE now owns 128 shares of the medical research company's stock worth $33,000 after buying an additional 51 shares in the last quarter. Global Wealth Strategies & Associates raised its position in shares of Amgen by 1,388.9% in the first quarter. Global Wealth Strategies & Associates now owns 134 shares of the medical research company's stock valued at $42,000 after buying an additional 125 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Heck Capital Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Amgen during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $36,000. 76.50% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have weighed in on AMGN. Mizuho boosted their price target on Amgen from $235.00 to $280.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Wednesday, May 7th. Guggenheim assumed coverage on Amgen in a research note on Tuesday, May 20th. They issued a "neutral" rating and a $288.00 target price for the company. Wall Street Zen raised Amgen from a "buy" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Sunday, May 18th. Bank of America upped their price objective on shares of Amgen from $252.00 to $261.00 and gave the company an "underperform" rating in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, Citigroup raised their target price on shares of Amgen from $300.00 to $305.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Tuesday. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have given a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $307.27.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Amgen news, SVP Rachna Khosla sold 1,500 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, June 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $289.68, for a total value of $434,520.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president directly owned 8,162 shares of the company's stock, valued at $2,364,368.16. This represents a 15.52% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 0.76% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Amgen Stock Down 0.2%

Shares of NASDAQ:AMGN traded down $0.67 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $308.55. 1,531,209 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,009,317. The firm's 50 day simple moving average is $287.97 and its 200 day simple moving average is $290.04. The firm has a market cap of $165.91 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.15, a PEG ratio of 2.79 and a beta of 0.49. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.70, a quick ratio of 0.88 and a current ratio of 1.17. Amgen Inc. has a 52-week low of $253.30 and a 52-week high of $346.85.

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