Research archive for AMGN

We are deep into quarterly US earnings season now, and what an exciting time it is! It's great to get detailed updates from all of our core Vestact portfolio holdings, and to see the market reactions.

Amgen's fourth-quarter results came out late last week. The stock price has done pretty well in the last three months, almost getting to $200 per share. It's at $187 per share now, giving the company a market capitalisation of $135.8 billion.

On Wednesday we had 3rd quarter results from Amgen. Remember these guys discover, develop and manufacture various human therapeutics. When looking at this company, all focus needs to be on their portfolio of therapies; what they cure, competition, FDA approval, medical aid adoption, doctor adoption, side effects, how the therapy is administered, regulation and many more factors. Fortunately, Amgen has a market cap of $130bn (30% bigger than Naspers) and boasts a portfolio of more than 13 mainstream products with annual sales ranging from $150m to $6bn.

Amgen Reported their Q2 2017 results aftermarket yesterday, with both a top-line and a bottom line beat. Earnings per share clocked 3.27 US Dollars (up 15 percent) on revenues of 5.81 billion Dollars (up 2 percent). Whilst there was momentum on their new products, there was a definite slowdown on their older products which obviously face increasing competition over time. It is the nature of the beast. Which is why, when owning a business in this very important space, healthcare, you need to find a business like Amgen, which has multiple lines in the water, so to speak. To illustrate this point, you need to look no further than to the breakdown per therapy:

The Amgen share price has been under pressure since Friday the 13th of March this year. Well, let me rephrase that. The Amgen share price took a knock on that day as a result of a fairly innocuous release: Repatha (Evolocumab) Demonstrates Reduced Need For Apheresis In Patients With High LDL Cholesterol In Phase 3 Study. Let us just say that the outcome was not what people expected.

On Friday before the US market opened we had the results from a large scale study on the effectiveness of Amgen's Repatha drug which lowers cholesterol. The results from the drug were positive but not positive enough for traders, the stock fell 6.4% on Friday (Amgen is getting whacked after disappointing study results for its $14,000 cholesterol drug). The big thing to note about this drug is that it costs between $8 000 - $15 000, depending on the dosage required. As you can imagine, insurance companies are not keen to shell out that kind of money without proof that the drug has benefits. The main benefit needed is a reduction in the number of people having heart attacks and needing to be hospitalized, which could cost insurers more than the cost of Repatha.

Amgen reported numbers on Thursday evening, after the market closed. I think for the purposes of this 4th quarter update, it is worth publishing a sales table of all of their therapies to explain where the business is right now.

It is not often that one has to watch legal judgments with your stocks, you would hope that the companies you own stay out of the courts. That is nigh impossible in the modern era though, there is always much open to interpretation. See the story that concerns one of our stocks - Amgen Wins Ban on Sanofi's Praluent Cholesterol Drug Sales. As you can see from the story, Regeneron and Sanofi will appeal this ruling.

Amgen reported their numbers post the market close last Thursday evening. The stock was completely smoked. By Friday close of trade the stock had lost nearly ten percent, the worst single day loss for 14 years. Why? Was there anything fundamentally wrong with the numbers? At face value the results and guidance looked decent enough. There have been several concerns about their best sellers coming under volume and price threats. Let us be clear when we are talking about these pharma businesses that one is able to invest in, there is a very fine line between the company dedicating in the teens of revenues for research and development (looking for new life changing therapies), billions of Dollars and then the cost to broader society, who essentially pays after the therapy has passed all the regulatory requirements.

Amgen reported numbers last week - Second Quarter 2016 Financial Results. It is not as tough to report on a company that has a very focused consumer front facing business, in many cases we use loads of consumer products like Apple (your phone or computer), Google search (or Android phones), Facebook (Instagram and WhatsApp), Amazon (reading your Kindle, ordering online), Nike (go for a run or to gym), JNJ and L'Oreal (shampoos and consumer products), Netflix even, perhaps even Priceline (Booking.com). Whilst you are wearing your Luxottica (sunglasses) products. Those businesses you know and use, and you are very familiar with.

Amgen, one of the world's leading biotech companies reported results for their first quarter of the 2016 financial year on Thursday evening. This is not a company that we have owned for a long time, it is a relatively recent acquisition for our clients. In fact, we have only been buying this company for clients for around a year. The nearly four decade old company, as per their mission statement are involved in producing cost effective therapies that are based on advances in cellular and molecular biology. If you were not paying attention in those respective subjects, biology and chemistry, then I suppose like most of us without the advanced studies in the respective fields, we will have to understand what the therapies do, whether or not there will be greater need for them, whether or not the company is on the right track, whether or not importantly that the company is a good investment at this juncture.

Amgen reported numbers for the fourth quarter and full year last week Thursday, after the market closed. This stock is new to the recommended list, perhaps a refresher on what the business does is in order. The company treats serious illnesses, that includes cancer, kidney diseases, rheumatoid arthritis and bone diseases, primarily. The company uses (a lot of this is from their website) advanced human genetics to firstly understand the conditions, before researching and manufacturing at the highest possible standard.

Amgen, one of the newest additions to the Vestact recommended stock stable, reported numbers post the market last evening. This is a company that I have been watching for about 8 years, back when Lehman Brothers still housed employees and actually had a family. The numbers were for Q3 and were a pretty solid beat, guidance was also a little higher than the previous range. Preliminary guidance was released for 2016 too, the group expects revenues in the region of 21.7 to 22.3 billion Dollars for that financial year, with EPS in the region of 10.35 to 10.75. The share price closed last evening at 162.67, in simple terms the share price trades in the middle of the guided range (10.55 USD EPS) on 15.4 times earnings. The yield at current levels is just below 2 percent.