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Astrazeneca (AZN) Stock Sinks As Market Gains: What You Should Know

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In the latest trading session, Astrazeneca (AZN - Free Report) closed at $64.86, marking a -0.51% move from the previous day. This change lagged the S&P 500's daily gain of 0.67%. At the same time, the Dow added 0.93%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq gained 9.29%.

Heading into today, shares of the pharmaceutical had lost 11.73% over the past month, lagging the Medical sector's loss of 1.19% and the S&P 500's gain of 2.65% in that time.

Astrazeneca will be looking to display strength as it nears its next earnings release, which is expected to be July 28, 2023. On that day, Astrazeneca is projected to report earnings of $0.98 per share, which would represent year-over-year growth of 13.95%. Meanwhile, our latest consensus estimate is calling for revenue of $11.22 billion, up 4.17% from the prior-year quarter.

For the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates are projecting earnings of $3.66 per share and revenue of $45.73 billion, which would represent changes of +9.91% and +3.1%, respectively, from the prior year.

It is also important to note the recent changes to analyst estimates for Astrazeneca. Recent revisions tend to reflect the latest near-term business trends. With this in mind, we can consider positive estimate revisions a sign of optimism about the company's business outlook.

Research indicates that these estimate revisions are directly correlated with near-term share price momentum. Investors can capitalize on this by using the Zacks Rank. This model considers these estimate changes and provides a simple, 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. The Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 0.9% lower within the past month. Astrazeneca currently has a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).

Valuation is also important, so investors should note that Astrazeneca has a Forward P/E ratio of 17.84 right now. Its industry sports an average Forward P/E of 14.36, so we one might conclude that Astrazeneca is trading at a premium comparatively.

Meanwhile, AZN's PEG ratio is currently 1.32. 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. The Large Cap Pharmaceuticals industry currently had an average PEG ratio of 1.6 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 183, which puts it in the bottom 28% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our individual 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.

Make sure to utilize Zacks.com to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and more, in the coming trading sessions.


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