Is Amgen, Inc. (AMGN) A Good Stock To Buy Now?

Hedge funds and large money managers usually invest with a focus on the long-term horizon and, therefore, short-lived dips on the charts, usually don’t make them change their opinion towards a company. The second half of 2015 and the first few months of this year was a stressful period for hedge funds. However, things have been taking a turn for the better in the second half of this year. Small-cap stocks which hedge funds are usually overweight outperformed the market by double digits and it may be a good time to pay attention to hedge funds’ picks before it is too late. In this article we are going to analyze the hedge fund sentiment towards Amgen, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN).

Amgen, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN) investors should be aware of an increase in enthusiasm from smart money recently. AMGN was in 59 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of September. There were 58 hedge funds in our database with AMGN positions at the end of the previous quarter. The level and the change in hedge fund popularity aren’t the only variables you need to analyze to decipher hedge funds’ perspectives. A stock may witness a boost in popularity but it may still be less popular than similarly priced stocks. That’s why at the end of this article we will examine companies such as TOTAL S.A. (ADR) (NYSE:TOT), Gilead Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:GILD), and BP plc (ADR) (NYSE:BP) to gather more data points.

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What have hedge funds been doing with Amgen, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN)?

At the end of the third quarter, a total of 59 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were bullish on this stock, a 2% rise from one quarter earlier. With hedgies’ sentiment swirling, there exists a select group of key hedge fund managers who were boosting their stakes considerably (or already accumulated large positions).

According to Insider Monkey’s hedge fund database, Samuel Isaly’s OrbiMed Advisors has the number one position in Amgen, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN), worth close to $406.5 million, accounting for 4.6% of its total 13F portfolio. Coming in second is Jim Simons of Renaissance Technologies, with a $316.3 million position. Other members of the smart money that are bullish consist of Cliff Asness’ AQR Capital Management, Phill Gross and Robert Atchinson’s Adage Capital Management, and D E Shaw.