Alexion Pharmaceuticals (ALXN) Stock Moves -0.9%: What You Should Know

In the latest trading session, Alexion Pharmaceuticals (ALXN) closed at $107.47, marking a -0.9% move from the previous day. This change was narrower than the S&P 500's daily loss of 0.92%. Elsewhere, the Dow lost 1.17%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq lost 0.28%.

Coming into today, shares of the drugmaker had gained 20.59% in the past month. In that same time, the Medical sector gained 16.11%, while the S&P 500 gained 15.69%.

Wall Street will be looking for positivity from ALXN as it approaches its next earnings report date. This is expected to be May 6, 2020. The company is expected to report EPS of $2.70, up 12.97% from the prior-year quarter. Our most recent consensus estimate is calling for quarterly revenue of $1.35 billion, up 18.42% from the year-ago period.

For the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates are projecting earnings of $11 per share and revenue of $5.62 billion, which would represent changes of +4.46% and +12.51%, respectively, from the prior year.

Investors should also note any recent changes to analyst estimates for ALXN. 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.

Research indicates that these estimate revisions are directly correlated with near-term share price momentum. We developed the Zacks Rank to capitalize on this phenomenon. Our system takes these estimate changes into account and delivers a clear, actionable rating model.

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. The Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 0.65% lower within the past month. ALXN currently has a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).

In terms of valuation, ALXN is currently trading at a Forward P/E ratio of 9.86. Its industry sports an average Forward P/E of 29.8, so we one might conclude that ALXN is trading at a discount comparatively.

Meanwhile, ALXN's PEG ratio is currently 0.78. 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. Medical - Biomedical and Genetics stocks are, on average, holding a PEG ratio of 1.95 based on yesterday's closing prices.

The Medical - Biomedical and Genetics industry is part of the Medical sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 13, which puts it in the top 6% 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.

You can find more information on all of these metrics, and much more, on Zacks.com.

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