Goldman Raises Target to $536 as Amgen Posts Q3 Results

AMGN closed Tuesday at $461.26, down 0.9% on the day but up 3% on the week, and Goldman Sachs responded to Q3 results by lifting its price target to $536, the most aggressive call on the Street right now.

Goldman's Salveen Richter moved first, raising the target from $481 to $536 while keeping a Buy rating. Morgan Stanley's Terence Flynn went to $410 from $359 on an Equal-Weight, and RBC's Luca Issi lifted to $470 from $430 on Outperform. Wells Fargo, Cantor Fitzgerald, and Truist all raised targets as well, though none carry conviction ratings above neutral. The mean price target across the Street now reads $404.32, well below the current share price of $461.26, which reflects the genuine split in view: Goldman is pricing in a re-rating story, while the neutral-rated firms are still anchored below where the stock already trades. The stock's trailing P/E has expanded to 19x and price-to-book to 18.7x over the past month, both moving sharply higher as the 14% one-month gain outpaced earnings estimate revisions.

The bull case rests on six growth products that rose 26% year on year in the second quarter, with Repatha, Uplizna, Tezspire, and Imdelltra expanding across major markets. Pipeline catalysts add to that: positive Phase 3 CROSSING data for Tezspire in eosinophilic esophagitis, Imdelltra's first-line survival results in ES-SCLC, and dazodalibep's Phase 3 OASIZ 301 success collectively broaden the addressable opportunity. The bear case is narrower but pointed: estimates coming into the print were below consensus, with some models pencilling Q3 revenue at $9.91 billion against a $10.05 billion consensus, and prescription trends for Tavneos, Tezspire, and Xgeva have been uneven. The market's verdict on who was right arrives with tonight's actual numbers.

Positioning offers little in the way of a complicating signal. Short interest is low and drifting lower, at 2.4% of free float, down 0.2% on the week. The borrow market is essentially frictionless: availability is at nearly 10,000%, meaning there are roughly 100 shares available for every one already on loan, and cost to borrow is just 0.38%. There is no meaningful short pressure to unwind or amplify a move in either direction. Options remain call-heavy relative to the recent past, with the put/call ratio at 0.839 against a 20-day average of 0.978, though the z-score has pulled back to minus two from more extreme readings earlier this week, as noted in prior coverage. The options market is leaning constructive but not aggressively so.

One alt data point worth flagging: Medicaid units reimbursed for Amgen drugs were down 24% year on year in Q1 2026, with prescriptions down 23% over the same period, per Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services data. None of the company's alt data series carry a measured lead against its reported financials, so this reading describes a reimbursement channel trend, not a revenue forecast. It does, however, sit alongside the bear case concern about softening script trends in certain franchises.

BlackRock holds 9.1% of shares, Vanguard Capital Management 7.1%, and Capital Research 6.9%, all adding modestly in the most recent quarter. The ownership base is stable and passive-heavy, which limits the likelihood of forced selling around any earnings surprise in either direction.

The print due after tonight's close is the event that resolves the gap between Goldman's $536 target and the mid-$400s consensus: watch whether Q3 revenue clears $10 billion and whether management updates full-year guidance on the growth product cluster.