Amgen Sinks Despite Beating Street Estimates

When Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ: AMGN) reported its third-quarter financial results after the markets closed on Thursday, the company said that it had $3.02 in earnings per share (EPS) and $5.81 billion in revenue. Consensus estimates from Thomson Reuters had called for $2.79 in EPS and revenue of $5.74 billion. In the same period of last year, the biotech giant posted EPS of $2.72 and $5.72 billion in revenue.

In terms of guidance for the full year, the company expects to have EPS in the range of $11.40 to $11.55 and revenues between $22.6 billion and $22.8 billion. Both forecasts increased from their previous levels. The consensus estimates for the full year are $11.36 in EPS and $22.77 billion in revenue.

The company generated $2.5 billion of free cash flow in the third quarter, compared with $2.8 billion in the third quarter of 2015. The board of directors declared a dividend of $1.00 per share on October 14 that will be paid on December 8 to all stockholders of record as of November 16.

During the third quarter, the Amgen repurchased 4.4 million shares of common stock at a total cost of $747 million. In October 2016, the board of directors approved an increase in the remaining share repurchase authorization for an aggregate authorization of $5 billion.

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On the books, Amgen’s cash and investments totaled $38.0 billion at the end of the quarter, up from $31.1 billion in the same period from last year.

Robert A. Bradway, board chair and chief executive of Amgen, commented:

Our business is performing well and our double-digit earnings per share growth reflects the progress we have made through our transformation efforts. We are focused on growing several newly launched products and advancing the pipeline globally.

Shares of Amgen closed Thursday up 1% at $160.57, with a consensus analyst price target of $189.41 and a 52-week trading range of $139.02 to $176.85. Following the release of the earnings report, the stock was down over 4% at $153.02 in early trading indications Friday.

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