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Amgen (AMGN) Outpaces Stock Market Gains: What You Should Know

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In the latest trading session, Amgen (AMGN - Free Report) closed at $264.39, marking a +1.05% move from the previous day. This move outpaced the S&P 500's daily gain of 0.75%. Elsewhere, the Dow gained 0.4%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq added 10.36%.

Heading into today, shares of the world's largest biotech drugmaker had lost 7.64% over the past month, lagging the Medical sector's loss of 0.53% and the S&P 500's loss of 5.98% in that time.

Wall Street will be looking for positivity from Amgen as it approaches its next earnings report date. The company is expected to report EPS of $4.02, down 7.8% from the prior-year quarter. Our most recent consensus estimate is calling for quarterly revenue of $6.74 billion, down 1.57% from the year-ago period.

Any recent changes to analyst estimates for Amgen should also be noted by investors. These revisions typically reflect the latest short-term business trends, which can change frequently. As a result, we can interpret positive estimate revisions as a good sign for the company's business outlook.

Research indicates that these estimate revisions are directly correlated with near-term share price momentum. Investors can capitalize on this by using the Zacks Rank. This model considers these estimate changes and provides a simple, 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 1.03% lower within the past month. Amgen is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).

In terms of valuation, Amgen is currently trading at a Forward P/E ratio of 14.19. For comparison, its industry has an average Forward P/E of 20.19, which means Amgen is trading at a discount to the group.

We can also see that AMGN currently has a PEG ratio of 1.85. 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. Medical - Biomedical and Genetics stocks are, on average, holding a PEG ratio of 1.58 based on yesterday's closing prices.

The Medical - Biomedical and Genetics industry is part of the Medical sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 64, which puts it in the top 26% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our 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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