Franklin Street Advisors Inc. NC Has $14.76 Million Stock Holdings in Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN)

Franklin Street Advisors Inc. NC grew its holdings in Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN) by 10.2% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 51,910 shares of the medical research company’s stock after buying an additional 4,826 shares during the quarter. Franklin Street Advisors Inc. NC’s holdings in Amgen were worth $14,759,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in AMGN. Exeter Financial LLC increased its position in Amgen by 0.7% in the first quarter. Exeter Financial LLC now owns 12,079 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $3,238,000 after purchasing an additional 85 shares during the period. Agate Pass Investment Management LLC boosted its holdings in Amgen by 1.0% during the first quarter. Agate Pass Investment Management LLC now owns 3,870 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $1,100,000 after buying an additional 40 shares during the last quarter. Signet Financial Management LLC boosted its holdings in Amgen by 10.0% during the first quarter. Signet Financial Management LLC now owns 8,154 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $2,318,000 after buying an additional 741 shares during the last quarter. Wealthcare Advisory Partners LLC boosted its holdings in Amgen by 10.4% during the first quarter. Wealthcare Advisory Partners LLC now owns 12,744 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $3,623,000 after buying an additional 1,198 shares during the last quarter. Finally, SMI Advisory Services LLC bought a new stake in Amgen during the 1st quarter worth approximately $3,933,000. 76.50% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Mizuho upped their price target on shares of Amgen from $223.00 to $235.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, May 9th. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price objective on shares of Amgen from $328.00 to $332.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, June 14th. Raymond James assumed coverage on shares of Amgen in a research report on Thursday, March 28th. They set a “market perform” rating for the company. UBS Group increased their price objective on shares of Amgen from $284.00 to $307.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, May 3rd. Finally, Argus raised their target price on shares of Amgen from $300.00 to $340.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $307.35.

Amgen Stock Performance

Amgen stock traded down $0.64 during midday trading on Thursday, hitting $312.18. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 1,019,111 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,776,752. Amgen Inc. has a 1-year low of $218.44 and a 1-year high of $329.72. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 11.96, a current ratio of 1.42 and a quick ratio of 0.98. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $299.67 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $291.67. The company has a market cap of $167.46 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 44.62, a PEG ratio of 2.88 and a beta of 0.60.

Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 2nd. The medical research company reported $3.96 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.76 by $0.20. Amgen had a net margin of 12.74% and a return on equity of 156.21%. The business had revenue of $7.45 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $7.45 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $3.98 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 22.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Amgen Inc. will post 19.47 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Amgen news, SVP Nancy A. Grygiel sold 2,117 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $313.09, for a total value of $662,811.53. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 9,883 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,094,268.47. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Corporate 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.