In the latest trading session, Amgen (AMGN) closed at $263.39, marking a -0.2% move from the previous day. This change was narrower than the S&P 500’s daily loss of 0.41%. Meanwhile, the Dow gained 0.11%, and the Nasdaq, a tech-heavy index, lost 6.67%.
Coming into today, shares of the world’s largest biotech drugmaker had lost 6.62% in the past month. In that same time, the Medical sector gained 0.95%, while the S&P 500 lost 4.4%.
Amgen will be looking to display strength as it nears its next earnings release. On that day, Amgen is projected to report earnings of $4.02 per share, which would represent a year-over-year decline of 7.8%. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $6.74 billion, down 1.57% from the year-ago period.
For the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates are projecting earnings of $17.62 per share and revenue of $26.23 billion, which would represent changes of +3.04% and +0.95%, respectively, from the prior year.
Investors should also note any recent changes to analyst estimates for Amgen. These revisions typically reflect the latest short-term business trends, which can change frequently. With this in mind, we can consider positive estimate revisions a sign of optimism about the company’s business outlook.
Research indicates that these estimate revisions are directly correlated with near-term share price momentum. To benefit from this, we have developed the Zacks Rank, a proprietary model which takes these estimate changes into account and provides an actionable rating system.
Ranging from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), the Zacks Rank system has a proven, outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks returning an average of +25% annually since 1988. Over the past month, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 0.13% lower. Amgen is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).
In terms of valuation, Amgen is currently trading at a Forward P/E ratio of 14.98. Its industry sports an average Forward P/E of 19.77, so we one might conclude that Amgen is trading at a discount comparatively.
Also, we should mention that AMGN has a PEG ratio of 1.95. 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. Medical – Biomedical and Genetics stocks are, on average, holding a PEG ratio of 1.29 based on yesterday’s closing prices.
The Medical – Biomedical and Genetics industry is part of the Medical sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 68, putting it in the top 27% of all 250+ industries.
The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our individual industry groups by measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.
Make sure to utilize Zacks.com to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and more, in the coming trading sessions.
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