Amgen Earnings Approach

S&P 500 (NYSE:SPY) component Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) will unveil its latest earnings on Tuesday, October 23, 2012. Amgen is a biotechnology medicines company that discovers, develops, manufactures, and markets medicines for grave illnesses.

Amgen Earnings Preview Cheat Sheet

Wall St. Earnings Expectations: The average analyst estimate is for profit of $1.43 per share, a rise of 3.6% from the company’s actual earnings for the year-ago quarter. During the past three months, the average estimate has moved down from $1.52. Between one and three months ago, the average estimate moved down. It has been unchanged at $1.43 during the last month. For the year, analysts are projecting net income of $6.22 per share, a rise of 18.7% from last year.

Past Earnings Performance: The company is looking to beat analyst estimates for the third quarter in a row. Last quarter, it beat estimates with profit of $1.82 per share against the mean estimate of $1.51. In the prior quarter, the company reported net income of $1.59.

Earnings season is back and more important than ever. Get our newest CHEAT SHEET stock picks now

Stock Price Performance: Between July 24, 2012 and October 17, 2012, the stock price rose $12.83 (16.8%), from $76.38 to $89.20. The stock price saw one of its best stretches over the last year between December 12, 2011 and December 27, 2011, when shares rose for 11 straight days, increasing 12.7% (+$7.26) over that span. It saw one of its worst periods between November 10, 2011 and November 21, 2011 when shares fell for eight straight days, dropping 5.2% (-$2.99) over that span.

A Look Back: In the second quarter, profit rose 8.2% to $1.27 billion ($1.61 a share) from $1.17 billion ($1.25 a share) the year earlier, exceeding analyst expectations. Revenue rose 13.1% to $4.48 billion from $3.96 billion.

Wall St. Revenue Expectations: Analysts predict a rise of 7.9% in revenue from the year-earlier quarter to $4.25 billion.

Key Stats:

On the top line, the company is looking to build on four-straight revenue increases heading into this earnings announcement. Revenue rose 3.4% in the third quarter of the last fiscal year, 3.4% in the fourth quarter of the last fiscal year and 9.2% in the first quarter before increasing again in the second quarter.

Heading into this earnings announcement, net income has dropped 14.6% on average for the last four quarters.

Analyst Ratings: There are mostly holds on the stock with 13 of 25 analysts surveyed giving that rating.

Balance Sheet Analysis: The company’s current ratio of assets to liabilities came in at 3.68 last quarter. Having a ratio above 2:1 is usually considered a good indicator of a company’s liquidity and ability to meet creditor demands.

Stocks with improving earnings metrics are worthy of your extra attention. In fact, “E = Earnings Are Increasing Quarter-Over-Quarter” is a core component of our CHEAT SHEET investing framework for this very reason. Don’t waste another minute — click here and get our CHEAT SHEET stock picks now.

(Company fundamentals by Xignite Financials. Earnings estimates provided by Zacks)

Don’t Miss These Additional Hot Stories:

Is Coca-Cola’s Stock a Buy After Earnings?

College Debt Bubble Update: Apollo Comes Back Down to Earth

Are P&G Shares Attractive Now?