Yahoo Finance Astrazeneca (AZN) Outpaces Stock Market Gains: What You Should Know
Astrazeneca (AZN) closed at $67.26 in the latest trading session, marking a +1.04% move from the prior day. This move outpaced the S&P 500's daily gain of 0.3%. At the same time, the Dow added 0.24%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq gained 0.34%.
Coming into today, shares of the pharmaceutical had lost 3.31% in the past month. In that same time, the Medical sector lost 2.43%, while the S&P 500 lost 1.21%.
Astrazeneca will be looking to display strength as it nears its next earnings release. In that report, analysts expect Astrazeneca to post earnings of $0.84 per share. This would mark a year-over-year decline of 11.58%. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $11.34 billion, down 0.44% from the year-ago period.
Looking at the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates suggest analysts are expecting earnings of $3.61 per share and revenue of $46.35 billion. These totals would mark changes of +8.41% and +4.51%, respectively, from last year.
Investors might also notice recent changes to analyst estimates for Astrazeneca. These revisions help to show the ever-changing nature of near-term business trends. With this in mind, we can consider positive estimate revisions a sign of optimism about the company's business outlook.
Our research shows that these estimate changes are directly correlated with near-term stock prices. To benefit from this, we have developed the Zacks Rank, a proprietary model which takes these estimate changes into account and provides an actionable rating system.
The Zacks Rank system, which ranges from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), has an impressive outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks generating an average annual return of +25% since 1988. Within the past 30 days, our consensus EPS projection has moved 0.32% higher. Astrazeneca is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).
Looking at its valuation, Astrazeneca is holding a Forward P/E ratio of 18.45. This valuation marks a premium compared to its industry's average Forward P/E of 13.81.
Meanwhile, AZN's PEG ratio is currently 1.22. The PEG ratio is similar to the widely-used P/E ratio, but this metric also takes the company's expected earnings growth rate into account. The Large Cap Pharmaceuticals industry currently had an average PEG ratio of 1.59 as of yesterday's close.
The Large Cap Pharmaceuticals industry is part of the Medical sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 98, putting it in the top 39% of all 250+ industries.
The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our industry groups by measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.
You can find more information on all of these metrics, and much more, on Zacks.com.
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AstraZeneca PLC (AZN) : Free Stock Analysis Report
