Street View: Investor focus still on Amgen's weight-loss drug candidate

** Amgen AMGN.O said on Thursday its first-quarter profit rose 24%, driven by product sales, and said that while it is premature to speculate on the impact of U.S. tariffs, tax policy would be a more effective way to influence U.S. manufacturing

** Median PT of brokerages covering the stock is $315.46 - data compiled by LSEG

FOCUS REMAINS ON MARITIDE

** Mizuho ("Neutral", PT: $235) believes many questions remain unanswered on experimental weight-loss drug MariTide, viewed by many investors as a potential blockbuster

** J.P.Morgan ("Neutral", PT: $283.78) expects shares to "remain range bound pending longer-term obesity updates for MariTide"

** RBC Capital Markets ("Outperform", PT: $320) believes greater visibility into critical inflection points for Horizon-derived products in the rare disease space, like thyroid eye disease drug Tepezza, gout treatment Krystexxa, and immune disorder drug Uplizna is necessary to bolster investor confidence

** Piper Sandler ("Overweight", PT: $329) says Amgen's strategy of launching new biosimilars will help in "cushioning the impact" by offsetting the revenue loss from products losing their patent protection

** Citi ("Neutral", PT: $300) says they are positive of AMGN's rare product portfolio from the Horizon acquisition