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

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Amgen (AMGN - Free Report) closed the most recent trading day at $202.37, moving +0.47% from the previous trading session. This move outpaced the S&P 500's daily loss of 0.22%. Meanwhile, the Dow lost 0.11%, and the Nasdaq, a tech-heavy index, lost 0.25%.

Prior to today's trading, shares of the world's largest biotech drugmaker had gained 4.48% over the past month. This has lagged the Medical sector's gain of 6.05% and outpaced the S&P 500's gain of 3.57% in that time.

Investors will be hoping for strength from AMGN as it approaches its next earnings release, which is expected to be February 7, 2019. In that report, analysts expect AMGN to post earnings of $3.25 per share. This would mark year-over-year growth of 12.46%. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $5.86 billion, up 1.08% from the year-ago period.

AMGN's full-year Zacks Consensus Estimates are calling for earnings of $14.24 per share and revenue of $23.34 billion. These results would represent year-over-year changes of +13.2% and +2.14%, respectively.

Any recent changes to analyst estimates for AMGN should also be noted by investors. These recent revisions tend to reflect the evolving nature of short-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.

The Zacks Rank system ranges from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell). It has a remarkable, outside-audited track record of success, with #1 stocks delivering an average annual return of +25% since 1988. Over the past month, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 1.56% higher. AMGN is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).

Investors should also note AMGN's current valuation metrics, including its Forward P/E ratio of 14.15. For comparison, its industry has an average Forward P/E of 25.03, which means AMGN is trading at a discount to the group.

We can also see that AMGN currently has a PEG ratio of 2.09. 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. The Medical - Biomedical and Genetics was holding an average PEG ratio of 1.63 at yesterday's closing price.

The Medical - Biomedical and Genetics industry is part of the Medical sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 71, putting it in the top 28% 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.

Make sure to utilize Zacks. Com to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and more, in the coming trading sessions.


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