Amgen (AMGN) will raise its quarterly dividend by 9.8 percent to $1.45 per share in the first quarter of 2019. Last year the biotechnology company hiked its dividend from $1.15 to $1.32 quarterly.

The next dividend will be paid on March 8, 2019, to all stockholders of record as of the close of business on February 15, 2019.

A new annualized dividend rate of $5.80 per share yields 3.0% at a stock price of $191.44.

Amgen Inc. is a biotechnology company offering products for the treatment of illness in the areas of oncology/hematology, cardiovascular, inflammation, bone health, nephrology, and neuroscience.  Amgen operates in one business segment: human therapeutics. The company discovers, develops, manufactures and delivers various human therapeutics. Amgen was incorporated in California in 1986 and went public the next year in 1987. The first dividend was paid in 2011.