Amgen, Inc. Third Quarter Earnings Sneak Peek

S&P 500 (NYSE:SPY) component Amgen, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN) will unveil its latest earnings on Monday, October 24, 2011. Amgen is a biotechnology medicines company that discovers, develops, manufactures, and markets medicines for grave illnesses.

Amgen, Inc. Earnings Preview Cheat Sheet

Wall St. Earnings Expectations: The average estimate of analysts is for profit of $1.26 per share, a decline of 7.4% from the company’s actual earnings for the same quarter a year ago. During the past three months, the average estimate has moved down from $1.30. Between one and three months ago, the average estimate moved down. It has been unchanged at $1.26 during the last month. Analysts are projecting profit to rise by 0.8% versus last year to $5.08.

Past Earnings Performance: Last quarter, the company beat estimates by 5 cents, coming in at net income of $1.35 a share versus the estimate of profit of $1.30 a share. It marked the fourth straight quarter of beating estimates.

Wall St. Revenue Expectations: On average, analysts predict $3.87 billion in revenue this quarter, a rise of 1.3% from the year ago quarter. Analysts are forecasting total revenue of $15.43 billion for the year, a rise of 2.5% from last year’s revenue of $15.05 billion.

Analyst Ratings: Analysts are bullish on this stock with 23 analysts rating it as a buy, none rating it as a sell and five rating it as a hold.

A Look Back: In the second quarter, profit fell 2.7% to $1.17 billion ($1.25 a share) from $1.2 billion ($1.25 a share) the year earlier, but exceeded analyst expectations. Revenue rose 4.1% to $3.96 billion from $3.8 billion.

Key Stats:

Revenue has risen the past four quarters. Revenue rose 3.2% in the first quarter from the year earlier, climbed 0.8% in the fourth quarter of the last fiscal year from the year-ago quarter and 0.1% in the third qu! arter of the last fiscal year.

The company has seen net income fall in each of the last two quarters. Net income dropped 3.6% in the first quarter.

Competitors to Watch: Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ), Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE), Biogen Idec Inc. (NASDAQ:BIIB), GlaxoSmithKline plc (NYSE:GSK), Affymax, Inc. (NASDAQ:AFFY), Genzyme Corporation (NASDAQ:GENZ), Merck (NYSE:MRK), Novartis AG (NYSE:NVS), 3SBio Inc. (NASDAQ:SSRX), and NPS Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:NPSP).

Stock Price Performance: During August 22, 2011 to October 18, 2011, the stock price had risen $4.97 (9.5%) from $52.31 to $57.28. The stock price saw one of its best stretches over the last year between May 5, 2011 and May 13, 2011 when shares rose for seven-straight days, rising 5.3% (+$3.05) over that span. It saw one of its worst periods between November 1, 2010 and November 12, 2010 when shares fell for 10-straight days, falling 5.2% (-$2.96) over that span. Shares are up $2.38 (+4.3%) year to date.