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Biotech / Medical : Amgen Inc. (AMGN) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Eric P who wrote (717)	1/28/1999 6:42:00 PM
From: DEER HUNTER	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1906

The future remains promising for Amgen. If the near term trend reverses it will from the 'buy the rumor...sell the fact guys'. There are a bunch of them out there. We will see. Good luck. DH

To: Eric P who wrote (717)	1/28/1999 6:51:00 PM
From: DEER HUNTER	Respond to of 1906

from AP....... biz.yahoo.com Thursday January 28, 6:40 pm Eastern Time Amgen's 4Q Earnings Up 33 Percent By PHIL GALEWITZ AP Business Writer NEW YORK (AP) -- Amgen (Nasdaq:AMGN - news)'s fourth-quarter earnings surged 33 percent thanks to accelerating sales of its franchise anemia drug Epogen, helping the biotech giant beat Wall Street expectations. Thousand Oaks, Calif. based-Amgen earned $239 million in the three months ended Dec. 31, or 90 cents per share, compared with earnings of $180 million, or 67 cents per share, in the year-ago period. A survey of analysts by First Call Corp. had projected earnings of 84 cents a share. Fourth-quarter sales increased 23 percent to $695 million from $564 million a year ago -- in large part to the success of Epogen, which comprises half of Amgen's total sales. Epogen sales rose 35 percent to $391 million in the quarter, and 19 percent to $1.38 billion for all of 1998. Amgen, the nation's largest biotechnology company, also announced a two-for-one split of the company's common stock in the form of a 100 percent stock dividend. The dividend will be distributed on Feb. 26 to stockholders of record on Feb. 12. Amgen's stock has risen steadily since mid-December when an arbitrator ruled the company owns the exclusive rights to its next-generation anemia drug to succeed Epogen, while rejecting Johnson & Johnson's demand that it be allowed marketing rights on the product that is expected to win U.S. approval in 2001. Epogen was created by Amgen in the early 1980s and is now one of the top-selling drugs in the world. The drug fights anemia, a common and serious problem in patients with failing kidneys, cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy, and other surgical patients. Shares of Amgen rose $3.68 3/4 to $119.56 1/4 in trading on the Nasdaq Stock Market. Amgen released its earnings report after the market had closed. In 1998, Amgen earned $863 million or $3.27 per share, compared to $644 million or $2.35 a share a year ago. Total sales for 1998 were $2.5 billion, a 13 percent increase from the $2.2 billion in 1997 sales.

To: Eric P who wrote (717)	1/29/1999 12:17:00 AM
From: Lel H	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1906

Here's a differing opinion on the value of after-hours quotes. The author is David Gardner, who has something to do with Motley Fool. The words below are not mine; any perceived snippiness is from the original author. (From the Iomega board at Motley Fool) I'm reading all sorts of stuff (way too many posts, in this case) about after-hours quotes. We ignore after-hours trading, which is low-volume and usually not particular "accurate" or indicative of a stock's trading the next day. In fact, in my experience it has often been a tremendous reverse indicator! I'm constantly reading after-hours quotes from people who (I guess) just can't get enough of quoting their stocks minute by minute during the day. For years now, I have heard about and watched people quote "after-hours" quotes for companies that have announced earnings, only to smile the next day when the actual quotes by noon, say, were the complete opposite of what everyone was saying the night before. I remember in particular being told two years ago after an earnings report that AOL was "way down" in after-hours trading, 7 bucks or so, and then the stock opened up the next day and closed with a $4 gain. What was that about after-hours? It only takes a few of those experiences (I've had many more) to make it plain how useful such data is. Just Wednesday, as I recall, the after-hours quotes monkeys (they do appear as active as monkeys!) had Amazon up $3, after its horrible drop that day of $26. This was supposedly some comfort to Amazon shareholders. The stock opened yesterday (Thursday) down 10 bucks, and closed off $7 for the day. These quotes are (are, or aren't, doesn't matter) worth the ether they're printed on. From an overall investment standpoint, any Foolish investor will put no stock (literally) in such quotes, the Foolish investor having something close to disdain for any sort of concentration on silly short-term movements, up or down. That wasn't meant to be snooty, but sometimes I have to step the ol' language-o-meter up a notch to restate our long-term patience in the face of what is, by comparison, spasmodic emotional reactions to upticks and downticks... ephemerality epitomized. Foolish best wishes, David Gardner