By Jerry Kronenberg | Moomoo News
$Amgen (AMGN.US)$ rose more than 10% after hours Thursday after the pharma giant beat analyst estimates for Q1 earnings and revenues and guided full-year results to potentially exceed analysts’ forecasts.
AMGN gained 11.7% to $311 shortly before 5:30 p.m. ET after the firm reported $3.96 in Q1 earnings per share, reportedly beating analysts’ $3.87 consensus forecast.
quarterly earnings of $3.96 per share which beat the analyst consensus estimate of $3.87 by 2.33 percent.
Sales totaled $7.447 billion, exceeding the $7.436 billion consensus among analysts and rising some 22% from the $6.105 billion Amgen recorded in the same period last year.
AMGN also guided full-year earnings per share to a range of $19 to $20.20 on $32.5 billion to $33.8 billion in revenues. The range’s upper end would exceed analysts’ reported consensus forecast of $19.53 in full-year EPS and $32.9 billion of revenues.
Meanwhile, Amgen reportedly said in its conference call that it’s giving up on developing a pill form of weight-loss drugs that would compete with red-hot Ozempic and Wegovy, which users must inject with a syringe. Amgen rival $NOVO NORDISK A/S (NONOF.US)$ developed Ozempic and Wegovy.
Still, Amgen reportedly said it plans to continue developing its own injectable weight-loss drug to take on those competitors.