Oppenheimer Has Outperform Rating On Amgen

Oppenheimer & Co. has an Outperform rating and a $69 price target on shares of Amgen, Inc. AMGN. In the research note, Oppenheimer writes, "On 12/13, AMGN announced Xgeva (denosumab) delayed bone mets in patients with advanced prostate cancer (PC) in the ph.III '147 trial. We view these results as clearly clinically meaningful, given the significant morbidity associated with bone mets in this setting. Although the secondary OS endpoint was not reached, we believe Xgeva's met prevention benefit and reasonable tolerability should lead to approval and very meaningful penetration, given the unmet medical need. Additionally, based on these results, we see promise for Xgeva in bone met prevention outside of PC. We expect material upside in AMGN on these results, and would buy the stock into strength, as we believe bone met prevention is a >$1B market opportunity for Xgeva." Shares of AMGN are up $3.49 in pre-market trading on this news, to $57.60, a gain of 6.5%.