Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN)‘s stock had its “neutral” rating reaffirmed by Zacks in a report released on Friday, Analyst Ratings Network.com reports. They currently have a $119.00 price objective on the stock. Zacks‘ price target points to a potential upside of 4.88% from the company’s current price.
Zacks‘ analyst wrote, “Amgen reported second quarter EPS of $1.88, up 3.3% and 17 cents above the Zacks Consensus Estimate. Revenues increased 5% to $4.7 billion, topping the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $4.5 billion. At first glance, Amgen’s second quarter results look impressive with the company beating by a huge margin. However, revenues included a positive Medicaid adjustment impact which boosted the bottom line by 16 cents. Earnings also benefited from a lower tax rate and share count. Amgen should be able to deliver on its long-term strategy based on expansion in key markets, launch of new manufacturing technologies, and pipeline development. We are also positive on the upcoming Onyx acquisition which should help make help make up for a part of the revenues that will be lost to generic competition. We expect 2013 and 2014 to be important for Amgen with results on several key pipeline candidates expected.”
A number of other firms have also recently commented on AMGN. Analysts at TheStreet reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) in a research note to investors on Monday. Separately, analysts at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. reiterated a “conviction-buy” rating on shares of Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) in a research note to investors on Tuesday, September 3rd. They now have a $130.00 price target on the stock. Finally, analysts at UBS AG raised their price target on shares of Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) from $121.00 to $124.00 in a research note to investors on Thursday, August 29th. They now have a “buy” rating on the stock.
Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, sixteen have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Amgen currently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $117.64.
Shares of Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) traded up 0.74% on Friday, hitting $114.30. The stock had a trading volume of 1,521,518 shares. Amgen has a 52 week low of $80.60 and a 52 week high of $116.25. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $109.0 and a 200-day moving average of $103.1. The company has a market cap of $86.109 billion and a P/E ratio of 19.12.
Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 30th. The company reported $1.89 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.74 by $0.15. The company had revenue of $4.68 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.49 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.83 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.5% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts expect that Amgen will post $7.26 EPS for the current fiscal year.
In other Amgen news, EVP Madhavan Balachandran sold 18,000 shares of Amgen stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, September 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $112.76, for a total transaction of $2,029,680.00. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link.
Amgen Inc is a global biotechnology pioneer that discovers, develops, manufactures and delivers human therapeutics.
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