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Amgen (AMGN) Gains But Lags Market: What You Should Know

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Amgen (AMGN - Free Report) closed at $241.75 in the latest trading session, marking a +0.1% move from the prior day. This change lagged the S&P 500's 1.44% gain on the day. At the same time, the Dow added 1.26%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq gained 5.21%.

Prior to today's trading, shares of the world's largest biotech drugmaker had gained 2.88% over the past month. This has outpaced the Medical sector's gain of 2.17% and the S&P 500's gain of 2.28% in that time.

Wall Street will be looking for positivity from Amgen as it approaches its next earnings report date. In that report, analysts expect Amgen to post earnings of $3.93 per share. This would mark a year-over-year decline of 7.53%. Our most recent consensus estimate is calling for quarterly revenue of $6.21 billion, down 0.42% from the year-ago period.

Looking at the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates suggest analysts are expecting earnings of $17.73 per share and revenue of $28.1 billion. These totals would mark changes of +0.23% and +6.73%, respectively, from last year.

Investors should also note any recent changes 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 company's business outlook.

Our research shows that these estimate changes are directly correlated with near-term stock prices. We developed the Zacks Rank to capitalize on this phenomenon. Our system takes these estimate changes into account and delivers a clear, actionable rating model.

The Zacks Rank system ranges from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell). It has a remarkable, outside-audited track record of success, with #1 stocks delivering an average annual return of +25% since 1988. Within the past 30 days, our consensus EPS projection has moved 0.01% higher. Amgen is holding a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold) right now.

Valuation is also important, so investors should note that Amgen has a Forward P/E ratio of 13.62 right now. Its industry sports an average Forward P/E of 20.56, so we one might conclude that Amgen is trading at a discount comparatively.

Investors should also note that AMGN has a PEG ratio of 1.95 right now. This metric is used similarly to the famous P/E ratio, but the PEG ratio also takes into account the stock's expected earnings growth rate. AMGN's industry had an average PEG ratio of 1.95 as of yesterday's close.

The Medical - Biomedical and Genetics industry is part of the Medical sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 86, putting it in the top 35% 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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