Amgen (AMGN) Gains But Lags Market: What You Should Know
Amgen (AMGN) closed at $241.54 in the latest trading session, marking a +0.44% move from the prior day. The stock lagged the S&P 500's daily gain of 1.23%. Elsewhere, the Dow gained 0.97%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq added 0.44%.
Heading into today, shares of the world's largest biotech drugmaker had gained 6.18% over the past month, outpacing the Medical sector's gain of 4.31% and the S&P 500's gain of 4.69% in that time.
Wall Street will be looking for positivity from Amgen as it approaches its next earnings report date. The company is expected to report EPS of $4.19, up 13.24% from the prior-year quarter. Meanwhile, our latest consensus estimate is calling for revenue of $6.1 billion, up 3.39% from the prior-year quarter.
AMGN's full-year Zacks Consensus Estimates are calling for earnings of $17.54 per share and revenue of $26.04 billion. These results would represent year-over-year changes of +2.57% and +0.23%, respectively.
It is also important to note the recent changes to analyst estimates for Amgen. These revisions help to show the ever-changing nature of near-term business trends. As such, positive estimate revisions reflect analyst optimism about the company's business and profitability.
Our research shows that these estimate changes are directly correlated with near-term stock prices. 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. The Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 0.12% higher within the past month. Amgen is holding a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold) right now.
Investors should also note Amgen's current valuation metrics, including its Forward P/E ratio of 13.71. For comparison, its industry has an average Forward P/E of 22.59, which means Amgen is trading at a discount to the group.
Meanwhile, AMGN's PEG ratio is currently 1.45. The PEG ratio is similar to the widely-used P/E ratio, but this metric also takes the company's expected earnings growth rate into account. The Medical - Biomedical and Genetics was holding an average PEG ratio of 1.2 at yesterday's closing price.
The Medical - Biomedical and Genetics industry is part of the Medical sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 160, which puts it in the bottom 38% 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.
Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report
Amgen Inc. (AMGN) : Free Stock Analysis Report
To read this article on Zacks.com click here.
