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Amgen (AMGN) Gains As Market Dips: What You Should Know

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Amgen (AMGN - Free Report) closed at $213.74 in the latest trading session, marking a +1.11% move from the prior day. This move outpaced the S&P 500's daily loss of 0.75%. At the same time, the Dow lost 0.3%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq lost 0.23%.

Coming into today, shares of the world's largest biotech drugmaker had gained 1.92% in the past month. In that same time, the Medical sector lost 2.78%, while the S&P 500 lost 0.13%.

Wall Street will be looking for positivity from Amgen as it approaches its next earnings report date. On that day, Amgen is projected to report earnings of $4.10 per share, which would represent year-over-year growth of 7.61%. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $6.9 billion, up 4% from the year-ago period.

Looking at the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates suggest analysts are expecting earnings of $16.84 per share and revenue of $26.05 billion. These totals would mark changes of +1.45% and +2.46%, respectively, from last year.

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

Research indicates that these estimate revisions are directly correlated with near-term share price momentum. 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.

The Zacks Rank system, which ranges from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), has an impressive outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks generating an average annual return of +25% since 1988. The Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 0.08% higher within the past month. Amgen currently has a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).

Valuation is also important, so investors should note that Amgen has a Forward P/E ratio of 12.55 right now. This represents a discount compared to its industry's average Forward P/E of 21.76.

It is also worth noting that AMGN currently has a PEG ratio of 1.51. 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 was holding an average PEG ratio of 1.54 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 159, 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.

Be sure to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and many more, on Zacks.com.


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