Why Amgen Is Down Nearly 7% Today

Amgen (NASDAQ: AMGN) shares were trading 6.8% lower late Wednesday following a second-quarter earnings beat that was marred by lowered full-year guidance.

The biopharma outfit turned $6.5 billion worth of sales into per-share earnings of $4.38 for the three-month stretch ending in June, both up from year-ago figures, and both topping consensus estimates. Analysts were only modeling a profit of $4.09 per share and revenue of $6.46 billion.

But the challenges created by the pandemic linger. The company lowered its per-share guidance for 2021 to a range of between $8.84 and $9.90, according to generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP), down from prior guidance of between $9.11 and $10.71 per share, as, according to executive vice president Murdo Gordon, "patient visits and lab test procedure trends continue to improve but remain below pre-COVID-19 levels." Fewer doctor-patient visits crimps sales of Amgen's drugs like migraine treatment Aimovig, psoriasis drug Otezla, and arthritis drug Enbrel.

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Source Fool.com