Astrazeneca (AZN) Stock Sinks As Market Gains: What You Should Know
In the latest trading session, Astrazeneca (AZN) closed at $67.94, marking a -0.41% move from the previous day. This move lagged the S&P 500's daily gain of 0.02%. At the same time, the Dow lost 0.2%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq gained 0.22%.
Heading into today, shares of the pharmaceutical had lost 1.33% over the past month, outpacing the Medical sector's loss of 2.7% and the S&P 500's loss of 2.86% in that time.
Wall Street will be looking for positivity from Astrazeneca as it approaches its next earnings report date. On that day, Astrazeneca is projected to report earnings of $0.81 per share, which would represent a year-over-year decline of 3.57%. Our most recent consensus estimate is calling for quarterly revenue of $11.55 billion, up 5.14% from the year-ago period.
AZN's full-year Zacks Consensus Estimates are calling for earnings of $3.66 per share and revenue of $45.86 billion. These results would represent year-over-year changes of +9.91% and +3.42%, respectively.
Investors should also note any recent changes to analyst estimates for Astrazeneca. These revisions typically reflect the latest short-term business trends, which can change frequently. With this in mind, we can consider positive estimate revisions a sign of optimism about the company's business outlook.
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 0.23% lower. Astrazeneca is currently a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).
Valuation is also important, so investors should note that Astrazeneca has a Forward P/E ratio of 18.62 right now. This valuation marks a premium compared to its industry's average Forward P/E of 14.66.
We can also see that AZN currently has a PEG ratio of 1.36. 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. Large Cap Pharmaceuticals stocks are, on average, holding a PEG ratio of 1.78 based on yesterday's closing prices.
The Large Cap Pharmaceuticals industry is part of the Medical sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 201, putting it in the bottom 21% of all 250+ industries.
The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our 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.
Be sure to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and many more, on Zacks.com.
Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report
AstraZeneca PLC (AZN) : Free Stock Analysis Report