Amgen (AMGN) Earnings Strongly Exceed Estimates

Amgen (AMGN) Tops Q3 Estimates on Strong Enbrel Sales

Biotech (IBB) (XBI) (FBT) (XLV) company Amgen (AMGN)  was expected to do well in the third quarter of 2015, but it significantly exceeded expectations thanks to strong sales of its arthritis drug Enbrel.

All told, Amgen earned $2.72 per share on $5.7 billion in sales versus analyst expectations for a profit of $2.38 per share and revenue of $5.32 billion. The company earned $2.30 per share of AMGN in the same quarter a year earlier, on a top line of $5.03 billion.

Sales if its flagship product Enbrel were up 30% on a year-over-year basis, while Neulasta revenue grew 6%.

Looking ahead, Amgen now foresees 2016 revenue of somewhere between $21.7 billion and $22.3 billion, which translates into a per-share profit of between $10.35 and $10.75. Both compare favorably to the bottom line outlook of $9.95 and $10.10 per share for 2015, and revenue somewhere between $21.4 billion and $21.6 billion.

The third quarter news follows Tuesday's announcement that Amgen's cancer immunotherapy drug Imlygic has been approved as a treatment for melanoma. The drug is effectively a herpes virus (sans the normal side effects of herpes) that destroys cancer cells by infecting them they way a virus would infect a normal healthy cell. The first drug of its kind, Imlygic could prompt the biopharma industry to rethink how it treats other diseases.

Meanwhile, Amgen is waiting on the FDA to widen the approved uses of Repatha, as a therapy for high cholesterol. It's got an anticipated PDUFA data of July 10th to find out if the drug can be used as part of a monthly, single-dose regimen.

The bullish response from AMGN in after-hours trading following the post-close announcement extends a four-week rally effort from the stock. Yet, there's more room to run higher before encountering known technical ceilings... the first of which lies at  $173.18.

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