Yahoo Finance Astrazeneca (AZN) Gains As Market Dips: What You Should Know
In the latest trading session, Astrazeneca (AZN) closed at $63.55, marking a +1.15% move from the previous day. This change outpaced the S&P 500's 0.13% loss on the day. Elsewhere, the Dow lost 0.15%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq added 0.14%.
Heading into today, shares of the pharmaceutical had lost 5.73% over the past month, lagging the Medical sector's loss of 5.23% and the S&P 500's loss of 3.32% in that time.
Wall Street will be looking for positivity from Astrazeneca as it approaches its next earnings report date. The company is expected to report EPS of $0.78, up 73.33% from the prior-year quarter. Meanwhile, our latest consensus estimate is calling for revenue of $10.46 billion, up 27.26% from the prior-year quarter.
AZN's full-year Zacks Consensus Estimates are calling for earnings of $3.30 per share and revenue of $43.59 billion. These results would represent year-over-year changes of +24.53% and +16.49%, respectively.
It is also important to note the 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.
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.
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. Over the past month, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 1.08% lower. Astrazeneca is holding a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold) right now.
In terms of valuation, Astrazeneca is currently trading at a Forward P/E ratio of 19.04. For comparison, its industry has an average Forward P/E of 12.63, which means Astrazeneca is trading at a premium to the group.
Investors should also note that AZN has a PEG ratio of 1.17 right now. This popular metric is similar to the widely-known P/E ratio, with the difference being that the PEG ratio also takes into account the company's expected earnings growth rate. The Large Cap Pharmaceuticals was holding an average PEG ratio of 2.07 at yesterday's closing price.
The Large Cap Pharmaceuticals industry is part of the Medical sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 155, putting it in the bottom 39% 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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