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Amgen profit up, 2008 outlook steady

By MARCUS WOHLSEN
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER

SACRAMENTO -- Biotech giant Amgen Inc. reported Thursday that its fourth-quarter profits rose, topping analysts' estimates, despite government warnings about the safety of its popular anemia drugs.

The company's forecast for 2008, however, calls for revenue to dip compared to 2007 - in line with Wall Street's expectations - and for earnings to slip into a lower range and fall short of Wall Street's prediction.

Amgen reported a profit of $835 million for the fourth quarter, or 76 cents per share, compared with $833 million, or 71 cents per share, during the same period a year earlier. Revenue fell 2 percent to $3.75 billion from $3.84 billion in the quarter a year earlier.

Excluding a mix of one-time buyout and restructuring charges, the company said it earned $1 per share, compared with 90 cents per share a year earlier. Analysts polled by Thomson Financial expected an adjusted profit of 97 cents per share on revenue of $3.54 billion.

The pharmaceutical maker, based in Thousand Oaks, earned an adjusted total of $4.30 per share for the year, excluding stock options expenses, on revenue of $14.78 billion.

It forecast earnings per share in 2008 of $4 to $4.30 per share on revenue of $14.2 billion to $14.6 billion, while Wall Street analysts forecast earnings per share of $4.37 on revenue of $14.49 billion.

Not everyone was concerned with Amgen's projections falling short of expectations. Eric Schmidt, a biotech equities analyst with Cowen and Company, LLC, said the company was playing it safe and could easily exceed its own estimates.