AMGEN TOPS EXPECTATIONS OF ANALYSTS.

Byline: Ben Sullivan Daily News Staff Writer

Biotechnology drug developer Amgen Inc. handily beat analysts' estimates Thursday with a 33 percent gain in fourth quarter earnings.

Amgen, which announced the results after the close of trading, reported net income of 90 cents per share compared to 67 cents per share in the fourth quarter a year ago. A consensus of 25 analysts surveyed earlier this week by First Call Corp. had generated a mean fourth-quarter earnings estimate of 84 cents per share.

``They had a great quarter. What more can you say?'' said AmeriCal Securities analyst Charles Engelberg.

The company's results were led by a 35 percent gain in quarterly sales of its anti-anemia drug Epogen, which rose to $391 million from $289 million in the same period a year ago. Sales of Amgen's other main product, Neupogen, rose 10 percent, to $298 million. Infergen, an Interferon-based hepatitis C treatment Amgen launched in October 1997, generated $6 million in sales.

For the year, Amgen's earnings rose 34 percent to $863 million, or $3.27 per share, on sales of $2.51 billion.

In announcing its results, Amgen also said it will split its stock two-for-one, a move analysts say should give the company's market capitalization a boost. ``Bull markets like this just love (splits),'' Engelberg said.

Investors already have been hot for the stock. In mid-December, a judge ruled in Amgen's favor in a dispute with Johnson & Johnson over future distribution of a next-generation form of Epogen. The ruling frees Amgen from an agreement that gave Johnson & Johnson sales rights to Epogen for everything but kidney dialysis. If and when the new form of Epogen is approved by the Food and Drug Administration, Amgen will be allowed to make all sales itself.

That news started a run on Amgen stock that continued Thursday, pushing the company's shares up $3.6875 to $119.5625, its second consecutive all-time high.