Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN) Shares Sold by First Manhattan CO. LLC.

First Manhattan CO. LLC. cut its holdings in shares of Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN - Free Report) by 9.8% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 101,750 shares of the medical research company's stock after selling 11,040 shares during the quarter. First Manhattan CO. LLC.'s holdings in Amgen were worth $26,520,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of AMGN. Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Amgen by 6.0% during the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 635,172 shares of the medical research company's stock valued at $204,659,000 after acquiring an additional 35,785 shares during the period. Watts Gwilliam & Co. LLC boosted its holdings in Amgen by 0.7% during the 4th quarter. Watts Gwilliam & Co. LLC now owns 17,651 shares of the medical research company's stock valued at $4,626,000 after acquiring an additional 128 shares during the period. ORG Partners LLC boosted its holdings in Amgen by 0.5% during the 4th quarter. ORG Partners LLC now owns 8,975 shares of the medical research company's stock valued at $2,345,000 after acquiring an additional 41 shares during the period. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC boosted its holdings in Amgen by 54.7% during the 4th quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC now owns 504,280 shares of the medical research company's stock valued at $131,436,000 after acquiring an additional 178,304 shares during the period. Finally, ST Germain D J Co. Inc. boosted its holdings in Amgen by 5.2% during the 4th quarter. ST Germain D J Co. Inc. now owns 82,348 shares of the medical research company's stock valued at $21,463,000 after acquiring an additional 4,042 shares during the period. 76.50% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently commented on AMGN. Wells Fargo & Company restated an "equal weight" rating on shares of Amgen in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. Morgan Stanley restated an "equal weight" rating on shares of Amgen in a report on Friday, May 2nd. Erste Group Bank cut Amgen from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Thursday. Bank of America lifted their price objective on Amgen from $275.00 to $294.00 and gave the company an "underperform" rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 5th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald initiated coverage on Amgen in a research note on Tuesday, April 22nd. They issued a "neutral" rating and a $305.00 price objective for the company. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have given a hold rating, ten have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $310.23.

Amgen Stock Down 2.3%

Shares of NASDAQ AMGN traded down $6.19 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $265.86. 3,326,938 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,766,734. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 9.62, a current ratio of 1.26 and a quick ratio of 0.95. Amgen Inc. has a twelve month low of $253.30 and a twelve month high of $346.85. The company has a market cap of $142.94 billion, a PE ratio of 35.21, a P/E/G ratio of 2.63 and a beta of 0.51. The firm's fifty day simple moving average is $296.08 and its 200-day simple moving average is $289.50.

Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 1st. The medical research company reported $4.90 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 return on equity of 176.32% and a net margin of 12.24%. The firm's revenue was up 9.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $3.96 earnings per share. Research analysts predict that Amgen Inc. will post 20.62 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Amgen Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 6th. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 16th will be given a dividend of $2.38 per share. This represents a $9.52 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.58%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, May 16th. Amgen's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 86.86%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Amgen news, EVP David M. Reese sold 25,225 shares of Amgen stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $304.44, for a total transaction of $7,679,499.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 36,922 shares of the company's stock, valued at $11,240,533.68. The trade was a 40.59% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, EVP Murdo Gordon sold 8,771 shares of Amgen stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $294.79, for a total value of $2,585,603.09. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 44,186 shares in the company, valued at approximately $13,025,590.94. This trade represents a 16.56% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 42,707 shares of company stock valued at $12,819,342 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.69% of the company's stock.

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.