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

Astrazeneca (AZN) closed the most recent trading day at $63.15, moving -0.65% from the previous trading session. This move lagged the S&P 500's daily gain of 1.47%. Elsewhere, the Dow lost 0.11%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq added 7.94%.

Heading into today, shares of the pharmaceutical had lost 8.55% over the past month, lagging the Medical sector's loss of 0.48% and the S&P 500's gain of 7.41% in that time.

Investors will be hoping for strength from Astrazeneca as it approaches its next earnings release. The company is expected to report EPS of $0.71, down 15.48% from the prior-year quarter. Our most recent consensus estimate is calling for quarterly revenue of $11.4 billion, down 5.09% from the year-ago period.

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 such, positive estimate revisions reflect analyst optimism about the company's business and profitability.

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Our research shows that these estimate changes are directly correlated with near-term stock prices. 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.

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. Within the past 30 days, our consensus EPS projection has moved 0.18% higher. Astrazeneca currently has a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).

In terms of valuation, Astrazeneca is currently trading at a Forward P/E ratio of 17.53. For comparison, its industry has an average Forward P/E of 14.19, which means Astrazeneca is trading at a premium to the group.

It is also worth noting that AZN currently has a PEG ratio of 1.17. 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. The Large Cap Pharmaceuticals industry currently had an average PEG ratio of 1.75 as of yesterday's close.

The Large Cap Pharmaceuticals industry is part of the Medical sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 99, putting it in the top 40% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank includes is listed in order from best to worst in terms of the average Zacks Rank of the individual companies within each of these sectors. 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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AstraZeneca PLC (AZN) : Free Stock Analysis Report

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