In the latest close session, Amgen (AMGN) was up +2.89% at $349.81. The stock's performance was ahead of the S&P 500's daily gain of 2.51%. On the other hand, the Dow registered a gain of 2.85%, and the technology-centric Nasdaq increased by 2.8%.
Coming into today, shares of the world's largest biotech drugmaker had lost 9.44% in the past month. In that same time, the Medical sector lost 5.12%, while the S&P 500 lost 1.66%.
The upcoming earnings release of Amgen will be of great interest to investors. The company's earnings per share (EPS) are projected to be $4.74, reflecting a 3.27% decrease from the same quarter last year. Our most recent consensus estimate is calling for quarterly revenue of $8.51 billion, up 4.42% from the year-ago period.
For the full year, the Zacks Consensus Estimates project earnings of $22.22 per share and a revenue of $37.86 billion, demonstrating changes of +1.74% and +3.02%, respectively, from the preceding year.
Investors should also take note of any recent adjustments to analyst estimates for Amgen. Recent revisions tend to reflect the latest near-term business trends. As a result, we can interpret positive estimate revisions as a good sign for the business outlook.
Our research shows that these estimate changes are directly correlated with near-term stock prices. Investors can capitalize on this by using the Zacks Rank. This model considers these estimate changes and provides a simple, actionable rating system.
The Zacks Rank system, stretching from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), has a noteworthy track record of outperforming, validated by third-party audits, with stocks rated #1 producing an average annual return of +25% since the year 1988. Over the last 30 days, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has witnessed an unchanged state. Right now, Amgen possesses a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).
Valuation is also important, so investors should note that Amgen has a Forward P/E ratio of 15.3 right now. This denotes a discount relative to the industry average Forward P/E of 20.4.
It's also important to note that AMGN currently trades at a PEG ratio of 3.39. This popular metric is similar to the widely-known P/E ratio, with the difference being that the PEG ratio also takes into account the company's expected earnings growth rate. By the end of yesterday's trading, the Medical - Biomedical and Genetics industry had an average PEG ratio of 1.61.
The Medical - Biomedical and Genetics industry is part of the Medical sector. This industry, currently bearing a Zacks Industry Rank of 143, finds itself in the bottom 42% echelons of all 250+ industries.
The Zacks Industry Rank is ordered from best to worst in terms of the average Zacks Rank of the individual companies within each of these sectors. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.
Be sure to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and many more, on Zacks.com.
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Amgen Inc. (AMGN): Free Stock Analysis Report
This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).