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

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Amgen (AMGN - Free Report) closed the most recent trading day at $244.87, moving +0.72% from the previous trading session. This move lagged the S&P 500's daily gain of 0.81%. Meanwhile, the Dow gained 0.3%, and the Nasdaq, a tech-heavy index, added 0.61%.

Heading into today, shares of the world's largest biotech drugmaker had gained 4.38% over the past month, lagging the Medical sector's gain of 6.56% and the S&P 500's gain of 5.64% in that time.

Investors will be hoping for strength from Amgen as it approaches its next earnings release. On that day, Amgen is projected to report earnings of $4.19 per share, which would represent year-over-year growth of 13.24%. Meanwhile, our latest consensus estimate is calling for revenue of $6.1 billion, up 3.39% from the prior-year quarter.

AMGN's full-year Zacks Consensus Estimates are calling for earnings of $17.57 per share and revenue of $26.04 billion. These results would represent year-over-year changes of +2.75% and +0.23%, respectively.

Any recent changes to analyst estimates for Amgen should also be noted by investors. Recent revisions tend to reflect the latest near-term business trends. As such, positive estimate revisions reflect analyst optimism about the company's business and profitability.

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.

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. The Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 0.3% higher within the past month. Amgen is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).

Investors should also note Amgen's current valuation metrics, including its Forward P/E ratio of 13.84. This valuation marks a discount compared to its industry's average Forward P/E of 23.76.

It is also worth noting that AMGN currently has a PEG ratio of 1.46. The PEG ratio is similar to the widely-used P/E ratio, but this metric also takes the company's expected earnings growth rate into account. Medical - Biomedical and Genetics stocks are, on average, holding a PEG ratio of 1.21 based on yesterday's closing prices.

The Medical - Biomedical and Genetics industry is part of the Medical sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 169, putting it in the bottom 34% 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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