The first-quarter earnings season has revealed how quickly companies are embracing digital and automation strategies, as they shift to dealing with consumers who are complying with stay-at-home rules and other restrictions on movement during the coronavirus pandemic.

Amgen (AMGN) has been upgraded to a Zacks Rank 2 (Buy), reflecting growing optimism about the company's earnings prospects. This might drive the stock higher in the near term.

The Dow Jones is making an important pullback since bottoming in late March. Fed Chair Jerome Powell's speech renewed focus on economic challenges.

The American Society of Clinical Oncology released abstracts of the papers set to be presented at its coming meeting. Analysts and investors are combing through the documents for key developments.

The Zacks Analyst Blog Highlights: Amgen, BHP, Altria, Apple and Target

Amgen stock is consolidating as it takes a two-pronged approach to coronavirus treatment, partnering with Adaptive Biotechnologies and testing Otezla in Covid-19. Is Amgen stock a buy?

Drugmakers and biotech companies are initiating development of drugs, vaccines and therapies for COVID-19 and substantial progress has been made over the past month.

If stocks do pause, a good setup is to look for quality stocks that are pulling back to key moving averages. One stock fitting that criteria is Amgen, the biotech giant. Amgen stock rallied from a low point near 175 all the way up to 245 and is now sitting near the 50- and 200-day moving averages.

Head of Macro Strategy at Academy Securities Peter Tchir joins Yahoo Finance’s Seana Smith to break down his outlook on the markets as coronavirus cases surpass 1.5M in the U.S., according to John Hopkins.

Amgen (NASDAQ: AMGN) will host a webcast call for the investment community in conjunction with the ASCO20 Virtual Scientific Program on Friday, May 29, at 1:00 p.m. PT. David M. Reese, M.D., executive vice president of Research and Development at Amgen, along with members of Amgen's clinical development team and clinical investigators, will participate to discuss Amgen's oncology program, including data being presented on the Company's KRASG12C inhibitor sotorasib.

Some investors rely on dividends for growing their wealth, and if you're one of those dividend sleuths, you might be...

In this article we will check out the progression of hedge fund sentiment towards Amgen, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN) and determine whether it is a good investment right now. We at Insider Monkey like to examine what billionaires and hedge funds think of a company before spending days of research on it. Given their 2 and 20 […]

Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) will present at the Bank of America Merrill Lynch Virtual Global Healthcare Conference at 1:40 p.m. ET on Thursday, May 14. Peter H. Griffith, executive vice president and chief financial officer, and Murdo Gordon, executive vice president of Global Commercial Operations at Amgen will present.

Biopharma shares have outperformed the broader market year-to-date, giving rise to apprehension over whether a pullback is in the offing. An analyst at BofA Securities said Friday that now is the time to go from defensive to offensive in the sector, as quarantines are winding down in several parts of the globe.The Biopharma Analyst Analyst Geoff Meacham shortlisted Eli Lilly And Co (NYSE: LLY), Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated (NASDAQ: VRTX), Bristol-Myers Squibb Co (NYSE: BMY), BioMarin Pharmaceutical Inc. (NASDAQ: BMRN) and Amgen, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMGN) as biopharma stocks where he would put his money to work.The analyst has the following ratings and price targets for the shares: * Lilly: Buy/$165 * Vertex: Buy/$300 * Bristol-Myers Squibb: Buy/raised the price target from $75 to $80 * BioMarin: Buy/lifted price target from $110 to $120 * Amgen: Buy/price target increased from $265 to $2755 Reasons For BofA's Bullish Disposition BofA is increasingly bullish on the biopharma group due to the following factors, Meacham said: * Expectations for robust revenue growth of 6% in the second half of 2020 compared to the first-half, which is double that of the S&P 500's revenue growth. * Reasonable price-earnings for the stocks in the sector. * Many value-creating events lined up for the second half. * Lower policy risk stemming from goodwill earned from the COVID-19 pipeline. * A consistently positive FDA backdrop.Q1 Earnings Get 'A' Grade All of the big biotechs and major pharma companies reported both revenue and adjusted EPS beats in the first quarter, with Lilly and Vertex even raising some parts of their 2020 guidance, Meacham said.Citing slower new starts and forex headwinds, Bristol-Myers Squibb and BioMarin lowered their 2020 revenue guidance, but maintained their EPS guidance, the analyst said. Meacham expressed surprise at Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE: MRK) and Alexion Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: ALXN) lowering their 2020 revenue and adjusted EPS guidance, given his belief that oncology or orphan diseases wouldn't be as sensitive to COVID-19 disruption.See also: Attention Biotech Investors: Mark Your Calendar For These May PDUFA Dates Lilly One of The Higher Quality Stocks In BofA's Coverage Lilly is a source of differentiated growth given its early product cycle and diversified base business, including diabetes, immunology and immunotoxicology and migraine, and an advancing late-stage pipeline of potentially best-in-class or first-in-class therapies, Meacham said.The analyst said he likes Lily's potential for additional earnings growth in 2020-2021 and views Lilly as one of the higher quality stocks in his coverage despite its higher valuation. The prospects for 2021 look attractive, with selpercatinib potentially launching in non-small cell lung cancer and thyroid cancer by year's end, and tirzepatide approval in 2021 representing a "step change" for the diabetes franchise, he said. Consensus For Vertex To Move Higher? Vertex has a richer -- though well-deserved -- valuation, due to its differentiated growth profile, Meacham said.Given that Vertex's commercial execution is largely unaffected by the COVID-19 pandemic, the analyst said investors will begin to look forward to 2021 sooner than for other companies with more commercial risk.BofA expects consensus estimates to continue to move higher, making Vertex's valuation even more attractive.Bristol-Myers Has Highly Differentiated Growth With an estimated 8% revenue growth and 19% EPS growth in 2021 compared to 5-6% and 12%, respectively, for peers, and with six new launches expected this year, 2020 is shaping up to be a very robust period for Bristol-Myers despite the ongoing COVID-19 headwinds, Meacham said. The analyst said the company's growth looks highly differentiated.An increasingly diversified product mix and beatable launch expectations position the company for meaningful upside to consolidated P&L, with improving synergies, he said. BioMarin's 'Game-Changing' Late-Stage Pipeline BioMarin's late-stage pipeline in valrox and vosoritide have improved its growth outlook, Meacham said.The analyst termed the company's late-stage pipeline as "game-changing." The second-half launch of Roctavian is the most important catalyst for the company this year, with the product likely to accelerate the company's already above-average growth profile, he said. "We see BioMarin as one of the higher quality names in our coverage universe given its clean growth story and it remains our SMid cap top pick." Amgen Looks To New Product Growth To Compensate For Legacy Product Erosion The long-term outlook for Amgen's Otezla is improving given the recently announced Phase 3 data for mild-to-moderate psoriasis, Meacham said.The company rapidly refocused its story from legacy product erosion to new product growth with the acquisition of Otezla from the Bristol/Celgene deal, the analyst said. "Since then Amgen's growth profile has only improved, led by an expanded addressable market for Otezla, outperforming Amgen Biosimilars and Evenity franchises, aggressive formulary negotiation for Aimovig, and an exciting pipeline in AMG 510 and tezepelumab looking to contribute as soon as 2021." The Price Action The iShares NASDAQ Biotechnology Index (NASDAQ: IBB) was last seen trading up 1.25% to 128.76, adding to its 5.6% year-to-date gain. Related Link: The Week Ahead In Biotech: Smid-Cap Earnings News Flow Picks Up Pace See more from Benzinga * The Daily Biotech Pulse: Ayala IPO, Pluristem Starts Phase 2 Trial Of COVID Treatment, European Nod For Takeda * The Daily Biotech Pulse: FDA Approves Novartis Lung Cancer Drug, 2-Way Contest Emerging For Tetraphase Pharma, Dexcom To Join S&P 500 * The Daily Biotech Pulse: FDA Nod For AstraZeneca, AbbVie-Allergan Deal Clears Antitrust Hurdle(C) 2020 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.

Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) today announced voting results from the Company's Annual Meeting of Stockholders on May 20, 2020, held virtually this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. More than 88 percent of outstanding shares were represented at the meeting.

Let's take a look at some ETFs with exposure to major players in the U.S. biotech industry, post their Q1 earnings releases amid the coronavirus crisis.

What happened Shares of the biotech heavyweight Amgen (NASDAQ: AMGN) gained an astounding 20.9% during the month of April, according to data from S&P Global Market Intelligence. Amgen's stock took flight in April for two underlying reasons.

Amgen (NASDAQ: AMGN) investors who were patient in February when the company's year-end numbers were down slightly were rewarded late last month when the Thousand Oaks, Calif., biotech giant's first-quarter 2020 results came out. The company's biggest riser was psoriasis drug Otezla, which had $479 million in sales in its first year since the company bought it for $13.4 billion from Celgene. Most of the company's old standbys continue to bring in strong sales, led by anti-inflammatory drug Enbrel with $1.15 billion.

Many biotech companies are coming up with impressive reports on their development of drugs, vaccines and therapies for COVID-19.

Top Research Reports for Amgen, BHP, Altria & Others