Amgen Raises Guidance After Solid Quarter

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Amgen Inc. late Tuesday reported better-than-expected profit in the third quarter and raised its full-year guidance, sending shares up slightly in after-hours trading.

After the markets closed, the Thousand Oaks biotech reported net income of more than $1.1 billion ($1.41) a share, compared with $454 million (50 cents) in the same period a year earlier. Revenue rose 10 percent to more than $4.3 billion.

Results were affected by legal costs. Excluding one-time items, adjusted net income was $1.3 billion ($1.67), a 2 percent increase. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters on average expected the company to report adjusted net income of $1.47 a share on revenue of less than $4.3 billion.

“We delivered solid growth in revenues and earnings,” Chief Executive Robert Bradway said in a statement. “Our marketed products are performing well and we continue to make progress with key pipeline projects.”

Sales of the company’s rheumatoid arthritis and psoriasis treatment Enbrel were a standout in the quarter, jumping 17 percent to nearly $1.1 billion. Combined worldwide sales of Amgen’s infection fighters, Neupogen and Neulasta, rose 1 percent to nearly $1.4 billion.

Sales of its anemia treatment Aranesp, which have been hurt by safety concerns in recent years, were down 17 percent to $497 million. But an older version of the drug called Epogen saw a 3 percent increase to $491 million.

The company’s new bone franchise reported mixed results in the quarter. Xgeva, which helps prevent fractures from cancer that has spread to a patient’s bones, had sales of $201 million, 12 percent higher than in the previous quarter. But sales of Prolia, a sister drug targeting the post-menopausal osteoporosis market, saw sales decline 8 percent from the previous quarter to $110 million. The company said wholesaler stocking problems were partly to blame.

Amgen now expects full-year adjusted profit of between $6.50 and $6.60 a share, with revenue between $17.2 billion and $17.3 billion. Those are up from its previous guidance between $6.20 and $6.35 a share for adjusted earnings and between $16.9 billion and $17.2 billion for revenue.

Shares earlier closed down 48 cents, or less than 1 percent, to $87.32 on the Nasdaq, but rose 2 percent in after-hours trading.

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