Amgen’s stock soars to record high on news of planned job cuts

Amgen shares jumped to an all-time high Wednesday morning, a day after the biotech giant announced a restructuring plan that includes up to 2,900 job cuts.

Investors welcomed the move. At one point, Amgen’s stock reached a record high of $131.24, before pulling back somewhat. About two hours into the trading day, the stock was changing hands at $129.74, up $6.43, or 5.2%.

The Thousand Oaks company, which announced the restructuring plan after the market closed Tuesday, says the plan will allow it to focus resources on marketing new products. It includes job cuts and the closure of facilities in Washington state and Colorado. Some Wall Street analysts have described Amgen as inefficient compared with smaller competitors and said that caused its profits to suffer.

Amgen also reported Tuesday that its second-quarter profit totaled $1.55 billion, a 23% increase from the same period a year earlier. Revenue rose 11% to $5.18 billion.

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