Astrazeneca (AZN) closed at $67.47 in the latest trading session, marking a -0.69% move from the prior day. This change was narrower than the S&P 500’s daily loss of 0.9%. Elsewhere, the Dow lost 0.5%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq lost 0.26%.
Coming into today, shares of the pharmaceutical had gained 4.41% in the past month. In that same time, the Medical sector gained 2.93%, while the S&P 500 lost 2.66%.
Investors will be hoping for strength from Astrazeneca as it approaches its next earnings release. The company is expected to report EPS of $0.72, down 14.29% from the prior-year quarter. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $11.41 billion, down 5.02% from the year-ago period.
Looking at the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates suggest analysts are expecting earnings of $3.34 per share and revenue of $44.25 billion. These totals would mark changes of +26.04% and +18.27%, respectively, from last year.
Investors might also notice recent changes to analyst estimates for Astrazeneca. These recent revisions tend to reflect the evolving nature of short-term business trends. As a result, we can interpret positive estimate revisions as a good sign for the company’s business outlook.
Based on our research, we believe these estimate revisions are directly related to near-team stock moves. 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.
Ranging from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), the Zacks Rank system has a proven, outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks returning an average of +25% annually since 1988. Over the past month, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 0.3% lower. Astrazeneca is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).
Digging into valuation, Astrazeneca currently has a Forward P/E ratio of 20.35. Its industry sports an average Forward P/E of 14.9, so we one might conclude that Astrazeneca is trading at a premium comparatively.
Investors should also note that AZN has a PEG ratio of 1.39 right now. This metric is used similarly to the famous P/E ratio, but the PEG ratio also takes into account the stock’s expected earnings growth rate. AZN’s industry had an average PEG ratio of 2.15 as of yesterday’s close.
The Large Cap Pharmaceuticals industry is part of the Medical sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 140, which puts it in the bottom 45% 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.
Be sure to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and many more, on Zacks.com.
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