UPDATE: Deutsche Bank Upgrades Amgen to Buy on EPS Growth, Pipeline Strength

Deutsche Bank raised its rating on Amgen

from Hold to Buy and increased its price target from $84 to $108. Deutsche Bank noted, "Despite a recent move in shares, we continue to see upside as Amgen still trades at a discount to its pharma peers despite better ROE (28% vs 21%), EPS growth (14.8% vs. -0.3%) . We think the co's dividend will continue to grow closer to the pharma avg over the next 2 years (we model 35-40% dividend growth and a dividend yield of 3% by 2014-ABOVE consensus). Amgen also looks attractive from the biotech view, as the co trades at a 20-30% discount vs its biotech peers despite EPS growth that is only 10% lower than the group. Long-term pipeline is underappreciated by both groups." Amgen closed at $87.16 on Friday.