Amgen's 4th-qtr income up 1.1% to $833M, short of analysts predictions

USA-based biotechnology giant Amgen's net income for the fourth quarter crept up 1.1% to $833.0 million, or $0.71 per share, from the $824.0 million it recorded in the last three months of 2005. Excluding the cost of stock options and certain other expenses, such as the 3% per share cost of its collaboration with fellow US firm Cytokinetics (Marketletter January 15), its earnings per share for the period were $0.90, missing the consensus estimate of $0.93 forecast in an analysts' survey conducted by financial monitoring firm Bloomberg. The firm's share price fell 3.7% to $71.50 in after hours trading on the Nasdaq on the day of the news, January 25.

Despite this, Amgen remained upbeat, emphasizing the increase in its revenues for the quarter, up 17% to $3.8 billion, as a more reliable indicator of its progress. The firm explained that its sales, which grew 15.9% to $13.9 billion for the full year 2006, had been driven by the performance of several of its key products.

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