AMGEN EARNINGS SURPASS $1 BILLION.

Byline: BRENT HOPKINS Staff Writer

THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. -- Powered by its anemia-fighting drugs, Amgen Inc. announced on Tuesday that it topped the billion-dollar earnings mark in the first quarter.

While its $3.21 billion in sales in the first three months of the year fell short of analyst expectations, the third straight miss, the Thousand Oaks-based biotech giant beat its projections for earnings.

Altogether, the company earned $1 billion, or 82 cents per share, on the sales of $3.21 billion. Last year, Amgen reported earnings of $854 million, or 67 cents per share, with sales of $2.83 billion.

``We're off to a good start in 2006,'' said Chief Executive Officer Kevin Sharer during a conference call with analysts. ``There's still a lot of room for additional growth.''

During the quarter, the company finalized its $2.2 billion acquisition of Abgenix Inc., picking up the full ownership of the drug panitumubab and a Fremont-based manufacturing facility. Additionally, it filed for approval from the Food and Drug Administration to use the drug in colorectal-cancer treatment.

Though weaker than Thomson First Call analysts expected, Aranesp sales rose 24 percent over the same period a year ago, to $894 million. The venerable Epogen's sales increased 4 percent, hitting $605 million.

To meet those analysts' consensus estimate, Amgen had to exclude its Abgenix acquisition and stock-option costs. On that basis, the company earned $1.1 billion, or 92 cents per share, 2 cents better than expected.

``The top line was below the consensus numbers, but they delivered on EPS,'' said Soham Pandya, who follows the biotech sector for Susquehanna Financial Group, a New York investment bank. ``It was a solid quarter, but the top line was a little disappointing.''

Prior to the news release, Amgen's stock increased $1.36, or 1.95 percent, to close at $70.97. After hours, it dipped 74 cents, or 1.04 percent, to $70.23. This makes its market capitalization of $83.86 billion slightly below that of its archrival Genentech Inc., which has a market cap of $84.89 billion.