Amgen Surprises With Q4 Earnings

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Shares in Amgen Inc. gained nearly 4 percent early Friday after the biotech giant late Thursday reported that its fourth-quarter profits rose despite ongoing inquiries into the safety of its best-selling anemia drugs. The earnings beat Wall Street’s estimates.


Amgen reported a profit of $835 million (76 cents per share), compared with $833 million (71 cents) from the same period a year earlier.


Sales for the Thousand Oaks-based company fell 2 percent to $3.75 billion.


Amgen added that excluding one-time buyout and restructuring charges, it earned $1 per share, compared with 90 cents per share a year earlier. Analysts polled by Thomson Financial expected an adjusted profit of 97 cents per share on revenue of $3.54 billion.


Amgen’s forecast for 2008 sees earnings between $4 and $4.30 per share on sales of $14.2 billion to $14.6 billion. Wall Street analysts forecast earnings per share of $4.37 on revenue of $14.5 billion.


Shares in Amgen lost nearly 35 percent last year amid concerns from the Food and Drug Administration about a class of drugs that includes the company’s Aranesp and Epogen products, which treat anemia caused by kidney failure or chemotherapy.


Aranesp sales slumped 12 percent for the year to $3.61 billion, mainly due to a 39 percent drop in demand in the fourth quarter, the company said. Annual sales of Epogen dropped 1 percent to $2.49 billion.


Amgen is also facing scrutiny from New Jersey’s Attorney General, who subpoenaed company records after two former sales representatives accused Amgen of forcing its sales force to market its top-selling psoriasis drug Enbrel for unauthorized uses.


Shares in Amgen were up 4 percent to $47.91 in early trading Friday on the Nasdaq.

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