Bank of America Merrill Lynch Discusses Amgen

Bank of America Merrill Lynch has a Neutral rating and a $62 price target on shares of Amgen AMGN. In a note to clients, Bank of America Merrill Lynch writes, "AMGN opted to hold off until its 2Q earnings call with explicit new financial expectations for its erythropoetin stimulating agent (ESA) products Epogen/Aranesp following the recent FDA label changes. AMGN believes that the revised Epogen label will not drive usage down significantly below where usage would have gone in a bundled dialysis environment, and noted the label left room for significant interpretation. Still, AMGN also expects CMS' quality improvement program (QIP) to be updated at some point to reflect the updated label, which we believe will negatively impact sales and cause AMGN to rethink Epogen pricing contracts." Shares of AMGN gained 84 cents yesterday to close at $57.88, a gain of nearly 1.5%.