This week: Amgen, Vertex, Akamai ...

It's another heavy week of earnings reports for me.

First, some links to some of my summaries of analyst conferences held last week:

Celgene (CELG) reported strong earnings growth of 17% y/y on July 24. I am bullish on Celgene, given its potential to expand Revlimid revenue and its pipeline, but it is not cheap right now on a trailing earnings basis.

Alexion Pharmaceuticals (ALXN) had earnings up 56% y/y. I like Alexion's model, but again a lot of future earnings growth is already built into the present price.

Agenus (AGEN) is a small-cap, development-stage company focussed on immunology, including Check Point Modulators (CPMs). In the quarter Agenus reported good Phase 2 trial results and is looking to partner with larger companies to further develop these therapies. They already have a deal with Merck to create new CPMs, and one with GSK for a component for a malaria vaccine. Watch this company.

Altera (ALTR) had a good quarter with revenue up 17% from year earlier. I believe that FPGAs (Field Programmable Gate Arrays) will continue to outgrow the overall semiconductor market, but put my money on rival Xilinx. Should have bet on Altera first; my intention was to buy both, and I still probably will.

The most interesting reports coming up this week (links are to pages where you can review past analyst conferences, if you like, and also linked to placeholder pages you can bookmark to get my summaries after the conferences take place):

Vertex Pharmaceuticals (VRTX), as follows know, is my least favorite Nasdaq 100 biotechnology stock to invest in, not because they aren't doing wonders in their therapeutic field, but because the stock price builds in way to much success compared to other companies. But maybe Vertex will return to profitability some time this year.

Amgen (AMGN) is well-established biotechnology company. I'll be watching revenue and earnings, as well as pipeline development. At some point Amgen may run into generic "biosimilar" competition for some of its therapies. There will probably be some analyst questions about that, and I would like to here the answers.

Akamai (AKAM) accelerates the Internet. Again, a great company, but I would need a lower price point to convince me to buy back in.

Microchip (MCHP) is a semiconductor stock with a reliable dividend and continuing growth potential. It is a core of my portfolio, but I would not call it cheap at today's price.

I own CELG, AGEN, AMGN and MCHP, and reserve the right to sell them or buy more of any of them at any time.

I do not own ALXN, ALTR, AKAM, or VRTX, but reserve the right to buy them at any time, which would be highly dependent on pricing.

I am an investor, researcher and financial writer. The above express my opinion, and does not constitute financial advise.