Bank of America Forecasts Strong Price Appreciation for Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) Stock

Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) had its target price boosted by Bank of America from $275.00 to $294.00 in a report released on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has an “underperform” rating on the medical research company’s stock. Bank of America‘s price target indicates a potential downside of 7.49% from the stock’s current price.

A number of other equities research analysts also recently issued reports on AMGN. Truist Financial cut their price objective on shares of Amgen from $333.00 to $298.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. UBS Group reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Amgen in a report on Wednesday, February 12th. Piper Sandler Companies restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $310.00 price target on shares of Amgen in a research report on Thursday, January 2nd. StockNews.com cut Amgen from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 18th. Finally, Piper Sandler increased their target price on shares of Amgen from $310.00 to $329.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, February 10th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating, twelve have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $314.95.

Amgen Stock Up 0.4 %

Amgen stock opened at $317.82 on Wednesday. The stock has a market cap of $170.73 billion, a PE ratio of 42.10, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.63 and a beta of 0.56. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 9.62, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a current ratio of 1.26. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $284.89 and a 200 day moving average of $299.91. Amgen has a one year low of $253.30 and a one year high of $346.85.

Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The medical research company reported $5.31 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $5.04 by $0.27. Amgen had a net margin of 12.24% and a return on equity of 176.32%. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Amgen will post 20.62 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity at Amgen

In other news, SVP Nancy A. Grygiel sold 1,589 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $304.47, for a total transaction of $483,802.83. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 7,210 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,195,228.70. This represents a 18.06 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, EVP David M. Reese sold 25,225 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $304.44, for a total value 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. This represents a 40.59 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 69,341 shares of company stock valued at $20,644,335. Insiders own 0.69% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Amgen

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Capital Performance Advisors LLP purchased a new stake in Amgen during the third quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Centricity Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in Amgen during the 4th quarter valued at $25,000. Pinney & Scofield Inc. purchased a new position in Amgen during the fourth quarter worth $26,000. Legacy Investment Solutions LLC bought a new position in Amgen during the third quarter valued at $29,000. Finally, Ritter Daniher Financial Advisory LLC DE raised its stake in shares of Amgen by 66.2% in the fourth quarter. Ritter Daniher Financial Advisory LLC DE now owns 128 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $33,000 after acquiring an additional 51 shares during the period. 76.50% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.