Sarasin & Partners LLP Buys 286,101 Shares of Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN)

Sarasin & Partners LLP grew its holdings in shares of Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN - Free Report) by 53.7% during the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 818,400 shares of the medical research company's stock after buying an additional 286,101 shares during the period. Amgen makes up 2.6% of Sarasin & Partners LLP's investment portfolio, making the stock its 18th largest holding. Sarasin & Partners LLP owned about 0.15% of Amgen worth $263,697,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in Amgen by 0.6% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 52,721,795 shares of the medical research company's stock valued at $13,741,409,000 after buying an additional 339,522 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in Amgen by 25.4% in the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 13,205,604 shares of the medical research company's stock worth $3,441,909,000 after buying an additional 2,672,975 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in Amgen by 2.9% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 12,475,032 shares of the medical research company's stock valued at $3,245,881,000 after purchasing an additional 352,143 shares during the last quarter. Capital International Investors lifted its position in Amgen by 40.1% in the fourth quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 12,212,065 shares of the medical research company's stock valued at $3,182,843,000 after purchasing an additional 3,495,503 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Capital World Investors raised its holdings in shares of Amgen by 1,292.0% during the fourth quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 6,495,710 shares of the medical research company's stock valued at $1,693,042,000 after acquiring an additional 6,029,058 shares in the last quarter. 76.50% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on the company. UBS Group reissued a "neutral" rating and issued a $315.00 target price (down from $319.00) on shares of Amgen in a research note 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. Johnson Rice set a $294.00 price target on Amgen in a report on Wednesday, March 5th. Citigroup reiterated a "neutral" rating on shares of Amgen in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. Finally, Bank of America raised their price target on Amgen from $275.00 to $294.00 and gave the stock an "underperform" rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 5th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have given a hold rating, nine have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $309.22.

Amgen Stock Performance

Shares of Amgen stock traded up $2.09 on Thursday, hitting $289.10. The stock had a trading volume of 826,920 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,798,976. Amgen Inc. has a twelve month low of $253.30 and a twelve month high of $346.85. The business's 50 day moving average is $282.39 and its two-hundred day moving average is $285.31. The company has a quick ratio of 0.95, a current ratio of 1.26 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 9.62. The stock has a market cap of $155.45 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 38.29, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.63 and a beta of 0.51.

Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly 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 business 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 176.32% and a net margin of 12.24%. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 9.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $3.96 earnings per share. Analysts forecast that Amgen Inc. will post 20.62 EPS for the current year.

Amgen 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.