Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN) Stake Trimmed by Financial Counselors Inc.

Financial Counselors Inc. lowered its stake in shares of Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN - Free Report) by 3.2% in the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 79,843 shares of the medical research company's stock after selling 2,656 shares during the quarter. Financial Counselors Inc.'s holdings in Amgen were worth $24,875,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in AMGN. Pinney & Scofield Inc. bought a new position in Amgen during the fourth quarter worth $26,000. First Pacific Financial lifted its stake in Amgen by 304.5% during the first quarter. First Pacific Financial now owns 89 shares of the medical research company's stock worth $28,000 after purchasing an additional 67 shares during the last quarter. Ritter Daniher Financial Advisory LLC DE lifted its stake in 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 purchasing an additional 51 shares during the last quarter. Atala Financial Inc bought a new position in Amgen during the fourth quarter worth $34,000. Finally, Heck Capital Advisors LLC bought a new position in Amgen during the fourth quarter worth $36,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 76.50% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on AMGN shares. Mizuho raised their price objective on Amgen from $235.00 to $280.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 7th. UBS Group restated a "neutral" rating and set a $315.00 price objective (down from $319.00) on shares of Amgen in a research note on Friday, May 2nd. Guggenheim started coverage on Amgen in a research note on Tuesday, May 20th. They set a "neutral" rating and a $288.00 price objective on the stock. Erste Group Bank cut Amgen from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 8th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada cut their target price on Amgen from $324.00 to $320.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, May 2nd. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have issued a hold rating, eight have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $307.82.

Insider Transactions at Amgen

In related news, SVP Rachna Khosla sold 1,500 shares of Amgen stock in a transaction dated Thursday, June 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $289.68, for a total transaction of $434,520.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president directly owned 8,162 shares of the company's stock, valued at $2,364,368.16. The trade was a 15.52% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 0.76% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Amgen Stock Performance

Shares of AMGN traded down $0.48 during trading hours on Wednesday, reaching $296.52. 2,097,995 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,848,756. The business's fifty day simple moving average is $282.95 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $287.50. The firm has a market capitalization of $159.44 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.05, a P/E/G ratio of 2.69 and a beta of 0.49. Amgen Inc. has a twelve month low of $253.30 and a twelve month high of $346.85. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.70, a current ratio of 1.17 and a quick ratio of 0.88.

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

Amgen Company 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.