What to Expect From Amgen Earnings

By Chris Lange Published Oct 28, 11:25AM EDT

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Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ: AMGN) is scheduled to report its third-quarter financial results after the markets close on Wednesday. The consensus estimates from Thomson Reuters call for $2.38 in earnings per share (EPS) on $5.32 billion in revenue. In the same period of the previous year, the biotech giant posted EPS of $2.30 and $5.03 billion in revenue.

The company reported outstanding second-quarter earnings, and it remains a top stock for investors to buy. It focuses on areas of high unmet medical need and leverages its biologics manufacturing expertise to strive for solutions that improve health outcomes and dramatically improve people’s lives. A biotechnology pioneer since 1980, Amgen has grown to be one of the world’s leading independent biotechnology companies, has reached millions of patients around the world and is developing a pipeline of medicines with breakaway potential.

Many on Wall Street point to the company’s tremendous pipeline and outstanding forward earnings and revenue capabilities. Amgen’s double-digit earnings and revenue growth rate is expected to continue for the foreseeable future because of its very deep clinical pipeline, which includes potential blockbusters Repatha for high cholesterol and Kyprolis for relapsed multiple myeloma. Amgen also has one of the industry’s deepest biosimilar pipelines, which is expected to generate upward of $3 billion in annual sales in the years ahead.

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This major biotech is slowly getting closer to an U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) final decision for its first-of-a-kind cancer therapy, talimogene laherparepvec (T-Vec). The final decision will be handed down by the FDA on October 27, with a likely European approval coming in the next few months.

The company’s T-Vec is a so-called oncolytic immunotherapy, using a genetically modified strain of the herpes virus to invade tumors and replicate itself, killing cancer cells along the way and spurring an immune response to double its effect. Back in April, a U.S. panel of independent agency advisors voted 22 to one in favor of approving this treatment.

Ahead of earnings a few analysts weighed in on Amgen:

Piper Jaffray reiterated an Overweight rating with a $200 price target.
Nomura reiterated a Buy rating with a $191 price target.
Sanford Bernstein reiterated a Hold rating.
Raymond James initiated coverage with a Market Perform rating.

So far in 2015, Amgen is positive, with the stock up 3.2% year to date, while over the past 52 weeks shares are up 11.4%.

Shares of Amgen were last seen trading at $161.20, with a consensus analyst price target of $184.83 and a 52-week trading range of $130.09 to $181.81.

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About the Author Chris Lange →

Chris Lange is a writer for 24/7 Wall St., based in Houston. He has covered financial markets over the past decade with an emphasis on healthcare, tech, and IPOs. During this time, he has published thousands of articles with insightful analysis across these complex fields. Currently, Lange's focus is on military and geopolitical topics.

Lange's work has been quoted or mentioned in Forbes, The New York Times, Business Insider, USA Today, MSN, Yahoo, The Verge, Vice, The Intelligencer, Quartz, Nasdaq, The Motley Fool, Fox Business, International Business Times, The Street, Seeking Alpha, Barron’s, Benzinga, and many other major publications.

A graduate of Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas, Lange majored in business with a particular focus on investments. He has previous experience in the banking industry and startups.