Amgen Profit Falls, But Tops Estimate; Lifts FY Outlook

(RTTNews) - Amgen Inc (AMGN) on Monday reported a nine percent decline in third-quarter profit, hurt mainly by restructuring costs. Earnings, however, topped Wall Street estimates, led mainly by sales of blood cancer drug Kyprolis and osteoporosis drugs Prolia and Xgeva.

The drug maker again raised its guidance for 2014.

Amgen, which had announced up to 2,900 job cuts, has been under pressure to optimize its resources amid increasing competition and slower sales of blockbuster drugs.

Earlier this month, hedge fund Third Point LLC, led by activist investor Dan Loeb, urged Amgen to split into two companies, after revealing a stake in the biotechnology company.

Amgen, based in Thousand Oaks, California, posted quarterly net earnings of $1.24 billion or $1.61 per share, compared to $1.37 billion or $1.79 per share last year.

Excluding items, adjusted earnings for the quarter were $2.30 per share, compared to $1.94 per share a year ago. On average, 20 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected earnings of $2.11 per share for the quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.

Amgen said results for the quarter included restructuring charges of $376 million, and estimates the fourth quarter will have related charges of up to $150 million.

Sales for the quarter rose 6 percent to $5.03 billion from $4.75 billion in the prior year. Seventeen analysts had a consensus revenue estimate of $4.96 billion for the quarter.

Kyprolis sales for the quarter climbed 21 percent sequentially to $94 million. Last year, Amgen gained access to Kyprolis after acquiring Onyx Pharmaceuticals for $10.4 billion.

Sales of Prolia jumped 43 percent from the prior year to $255 million, and sales of Xgeva, for the prevention of skeletal related events, rose 22 percent to $318 million.

Combined sales of Neulasta and Neupogen, used to prevent infections in chemotherapy-administered patients, slid 7 percent to $1.49 billion. While Neulasta sales rose 5 percent, Neupogen slid 36 percent.

Sales of rheumatoid arthritis drug Enbrel fell 3 percent to $1.12 billion.

Amgen's research expense for the quarter rose 1 percent from last year to $980 million.

Its operating margin for the quarter improved to 46.7 percent from 39.8 percent a year ago.

For the full year 2014, the company now expect adjusted earnings of $8.45 to $8.55 per share on sales of $19.8 billion to $20 billion. Amgen had earlier estimated earnings of $8.20 to $8.40 per share on sales of $19.5 billion to $19.7 billion.

Analysts currently expect earnings of $8.42 per share on sales of $19.73 billion for the year.

Amgen has a slew of drugs in the pipeline for 2014, including Ivrabradine for chronic heart failure, Kyprolis for multiple myeloma, AMG 416 for secondary hyperparathyroidism.

Amgen closed Monday's regular trade at $148.20, up $0.94 or 0.64%, on a volume of 4 million shares on the Nasdaq. In after hours, the stock gained $0.80 or 0.54% at $149.