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

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Amgen (AMGN - Free Report) closed at $222.02 in the latest trading session, marking a +0.39% move from the prior day. The stock lagged the S&P 500's daily gain of 1.23%. At the same time, the Dow added 0.84%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq lost 2.24%.

Prior to today's trading, shares of the world's largest biotech drugmaker had gained 3.22% over the past month. This has outpaced the Medical sector's gain of 2.55% and lagged the S&P 500's gain of 4.67% in that time.

Amgen will be looking to display strength as it nears its next earnings release. The company is expected to report EPS of $4.46, down 4.09% from the prior-year quarter. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $6.68 billion, up 1.32% from the year-ago period.

AMGN's full-year Zacks Consensus Estimates are calling for earnings of $18.12 per share and revenue of $27.73 billion. These results would represent year-over-year changes of +2.43% and +5.35%, respectively.

Investors should also note any recent changes to analyst estimates for Amgen. These recent revisions tend to reflect the evolving nature of short-term business trends. With this in mind, we can consider positive estimate revisions a sign of optimism about the company's business outlook.

Based on our research, we believe these estimate revisions are directly related to near-team stock moves. 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 remained stagnant. Amgen currently has a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).

Looking at its valuation, Amgen is holding a Forward P/E ratio of 12.21. Its industry sports an average Forward P/E of 18.37, so we one might conclude that Amgen is trading at a discount comparatively.

It is also worth noting that AMGN currently has a PEG ratio of 1.74. 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. The Medical - Biomedical and Genetics industry currently had an average PEG ratio of 1.81 as of yesterday's close.

The Medical - Biomedical and Genetics industry is part of the Medical sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 96, which puts it in the top 39% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank includes is listed in order 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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