In the latest trading session, Amgen (AMGN) closed at $317.17, marking a +1.1% move from the previous day. The stock outpaced the S&P 500's daily gain of 0.64%. Meanwhile, the Dow experienced a rise of 0.85%, and the technology-dominated Nasdaq saw an increase of 0.31%.

Prior to today's trading, shares of the world's largest biotech drugmaker had gained 7.74% over the past month. This has outpaced the Medical sector's loss of 0.88% and the S&P 500's loss of 7.69% in that time.

Investors will be eagerly watching for the performance of Amgen in its upcoming earnings disclosure. It is anticipated that the company will report an EPS of $4.18, marking a 5.56% rise compared to the same quarter of the previous year. Meanwhile, the latest consensus estimate predicts the revenue to be $8.01 billion, indicating a 7.52% increase compared to the same quarter of the previous year.

AMGN's full-year Zacks Consensus Estimates are calling for earnings of $20.63 per share and revenue of $35 billion. These results would represent year-over-year changes of +3.98% and +4.72%, respectively.

Investors should also take note of any recent adjustments to analyst estimates for Amgen. Recent revisions tend to reflect the latest near-term business trends. As a result, upbeat changes in estimates indicate analysts' favorable outlook on the company's business health and profitability.

Research indicates that these estimate revisions are directly correlated with near-term share price momentum. To exploit this, we've formed the Zacks Rank, a quantitative model that includes these estimate changes and presents a viable rating system.

The Zacks Rank system, spanning from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), boasts an impressive track record of outperformance, audited externally, with #1 ranked stocks yielding an average annual return of +25% since 1988. Over the last 30 days, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 0.14% higher. Amgen is currently a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

Investors should also note Amgen's current valuation metrics, including its Forward P/E ratio of 15.2. This valuation marks a discount compared to its industry's average Forward P/E of 19.99.

Also, we should mention that AMGN has a PEG ratio of 2.62. This popular metric is similar to the widely-known P/E ratio, with the difference being that the PEG ratio also takes into account the company's expected earnings growth rate. The average PEG ratio for the Medical - Biomedical and Genetics industry stood at 1.55 at the close of the market yesterday.

The Medical - Biomedical and Genetics industry is part of the Medical sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 73, which puts it in the top 30% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank assesses the strength of our separate industry groups by calculating the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks contained within the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.

Be sure to use Zacks.com to monitor all these stock-influencing metrics, and more, throughout the forthcoming trading sessions.

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Amgen Inc. (AMGN) : Free Stock Analysis Report

This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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