Yahoo Finance Astrazeneca (AZN) Rises As Market Takes a Dip: Key Facts
In the latest trading session, Astrazeneca (AZN) closed at $66.33, marking a +0.71% move from the previous day. The stock's change was more than the S&P 500's daily loss of 0.28%. Elsewhere, the Dow saw a downswing of 0.08%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq depreciated by 0.42%.
The pharmaceutical's stock has dropped by 0.11% in the past month, exceeding the Medical sector's loss of 1.21% and lagging the S&P 500's gain of 2.67%.
The investment community will be closely monitoring the performance of Astrazeneca in its forthcoming earnings report. The company is scheduled to release its earnings on April 25, 2024. The company is predicted to post an EPS of $0.97, indicating a 1.04% growth compared to the equivalent quarter last year. Meanwhile, the latest consensus estimate predicts the revenue to be $12 billion, indicating a 10.32% increase compared to the same quarter of the previous year.
For the full year, the Zacks Consensus Estimates project earnings of $4.07 per share and a revenue of $51.02 billion, demonstrating changes of +12.12% and +11.37%, respectively, from the preceding year.
Investors should also take note of any recent adjustments to analyst estimates for Astrazeneca. These latest adjustments often mirror the shifting dynamics of short-term business patterns. As a result, upbeat changes in estimates indicate analysts' favorable outlook on the company's business health and profitability.
Research indicates that these estimate revisions are directly correlated with near-term share price momentum. To exploit this, we've formed the Zacks Rank, a quantitative model that includes these estimate changes and presents a viable 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 last 30 days, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has witnessed a 0.57% decrease. As of now, Astrazeneca holds a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).
Looking at its valuation, Astrazeneca is holding a Forward P/E ratio of 16.2. Its industry sports an average Forward P/E of 14.57, so one might conclude that Astrazeneca is trading at a premium comparatively.
It's also important to note that AZN currently trades at a PEG ratio of 1.21. 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. AZN's industry had an average PEG ratio of 1.77 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 209, which puts it in the bottom 18% of all 250+ industries.
The Zacks Industry Rank assesses the strength of our separate industry groups by calculating the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks contained 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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AstraZeneca PLC (AZN) : Free Stock Analysis Report
