Amgen (AMGN) closed at $366.44 in the latest trading session, marking a -2.06% move from the prior day. The stock's change was less than the S&P 500's daily gain of 0.72%. Elsewhere, the Dow gained 0.3%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq added 1.12%.
Prior to today's trading, shares of the world's largest biotech drugmaker had gained 7.03% lagged the Medical sector's gain of 12.48% and outpaced the S&P 500's loss of 0.9%.
Market participants will be closely following the financial results of Amgen in its upcoming release. It is anticipated that the company will report an EPS of $5.57, marking a 7.48% fall compared to the same quarter of the previous year. Simultaneously, our latest consensus estimate expects the revenue to be $9.46 billion, showing a 3.01% escalation compared to the year-ago quarter.
For the full year, the Zacks Consensus Estimates are projecting earnings of $22.26 per share and revenue of $37.77 billion, which would represent changes of +1.92% and +2.78%, respectively, from the prior year.
Investors should also pay attention to any latest changes in analyst estimates for Amgen. These revisions help to show the ever-changing nature of 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. To utilize this, we have created the Zacks Rank, a proprietary model that integrates these estimate changes and provides a functional rating system.
The Zacks Rank system, which varies between #1 (Strong Buy) and #5 (Strong Sell), carries an impressive track record of exceeding expectations, confirmed by external audits, with stocks at #1 delivering an average annual return of +25% since 1988. Within the past 30 days, our consensus EPS projection has moved 0.02% higher. Amgen is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).
Valuation is also important, so investors should note that Amgen has a Forward P/E ratio of 16.81 right now. This signifies a discount in comparison to the average Forward P/E of 21.56 for its industry.
We can additionally observe that AMGN currently boasts a PEG ratio of 3.7. The PEG ratio bears resemblance to the frequently used P/E ratio, but this parameter also includes the company's expected earnings growth trajectory. The Medical - Biomedical and Genetics industry had an average PEG ratio of 1.74 as trading concluded yesterday.
The Medical - Biomedical and Genetics industry is part of the Medical sector. With its current Zacks Industry Rank of 150, this industry ranks in the bottom 40% of all industries, numbering over 250.
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.
You can find more information on all of these metrics, and much 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).