Shares of Amgen Inc. dropped more than 7 percent Wednesday after a disappointing first quarter earnings report late Tuesday.
The Thousand Oaks biotech giant reported adjusted net income of $2.15 billion ($3.70 a share) for the quarter, a decrease of 12 percent from $2.5 billion ($4.22) in the first financial quarter of 2020.
Revenue totaled $5.9 billion for the quarter, a 4 percent decline compared to last year’s $6.2 billion first quarter. Analysts on average expected first quarter net income of $4.04 a share on revenue of $6.3 billion, according to Yahoo Finance.Amgen attributed the poor performance to a “cumulative, continuing negative effect of COVID-19 on patient visits and new patient diagnoses.” The company also mentioned decreased revenues and its share of BeiGene’s net loss; Amgen bought 20.3 percent stock ownership of the Chinese biotech between October 2019 and July of last year.“While our business continued to be impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly in the first two months of the quarter, we are encouraged by strong volume trends in many of our newer products and remain confident in the outlook for the full year,” Robert Bradway, chief executive of Amgen, said in a statement. “We also continue to advance key pipeline opportunities, including three late-stage assets that have earned Breakthrough Therapy Designation from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.”Bradway was referring to bemarituzumab, sotorasib and Blincyto, drugs designed to treat stomach cancer, lung cancer and leukemia, respectively.Shares of Amgen (AMGN) closed down $18.42, or 7.2 percent, to $236.71 on the Nasdaq on Wednesday, a day when the overall Nasdaq was down less than a percent.
Amgen Shares Fall on Lower Quarterly Performance
