Amgen (AMGN) was up more than 5%, near 129, in early trading in the stock market today as analysts approved of big-cap biotech’s earnings beat and restructuring plans announced late Tuesday. Earlier, Amgen stock touched a new high above 131. Amgen’s Q2 earnings beat consensus by nearly 15%, rising 25% over the year-earlier quarter to $2.37 a share. Sales climbed 11% to $5.18 billion, some $300 million above estimates. The company raised its
Big pharma Pfizer (PFE) got a downgrade ahead of its Q2 earnings report scheduled for Tuesday, a day that will also feature reports from fellow big pharma Merck (MRK) as well as big biotech Amgen (AMGN). Analysts on average expect Pfizer earnings of 57 cents a share, up a penny from the year-earlier quarter, with sales dropping 3.9% to $12.47 billion due to patent expirations. In his downgrade note Monday, BMO Capital Markets analyst Alex Arfaei
Shares of Bind Therapeutics (BIND) were down more than 12% to 11.31 on the stock market today after the biotech said late Wednesday that it had ended its partnership with Amgen (AMGN). The partnership started in January 2013 to determine if Amgen’s cancer drugs could be enhanced by Bind’s nanomedicine technology. Bind’s nanoparticles, called Accurins, can be programmed to target payloads of drugs directly to cancerous tissues and cells. However,