In the latest trading session, Astrazeneca (AZN) closed at $72.66, marking a -1.38% move from the previous day. The stock's performance was behind the S&P 500's daily gain of 0.4%. Elsewhere, the Dow gained 0.47%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq added 0.24%.
Shares of the pharmaceutical have appreciated by 5.15% over the course of the past month, outperforming the Medical sector's gain of 1.19%, and the S&P 500's gain of 4.61%.
Market participants will be closely following the financial results of Astrazeneca in its upcoming release. The company plans to announce its earnings on July 29, 2025. It is anticipated that the company will report an EPS of $1.09, marking a 10.1% rise compared to the same quarter of the previous year. Our most recent consensus estimate is calling for quarterly revenue of $14.03 billion, up 8.45% from the year-ago period.
For the full year, the Zacks Consensus Estimates are projecting earnings of $4.5 per share and revenue of $57.71 billion, which would represent changes of +9.49% and +6.72%, respectively, from the prior year.
Investors might also notice recent changes to analyst estimates for Astrazeneca. These revisions help to show the ever-changing nature of near-term business trends. As a result, we can interpret positive estimate revisions as a good sign for the business outlook.
Our research suggests that these changes in estimates have a direct relationship with upcoming stock price performance. To exploit this, we've formed the Zacks Rank, a quantitative model that includes these estimate changes and presents a viable rating system.
The Zacks Rank system, ranging from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), possesses a remarkable history of outdoing, externally audited, with #1 stocks returning an average annual gain of +25% since 1988. Over the last 30 days, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has witnessed a 0.11% decrease. Astrazeneca presently features a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).
Looking at its valuation, Astrazeneca is holding a Forward P/E ratio of 16.39. This denotes a discount relative to the industry average Forward P/E of 19.38.
One should further note that AZN currently holds a PEG ratio of 1.35. The PEG ratio bears resemblance to the frequently used P/E ratio, but this parameter also includes the company's expected earnings growth trajectory. As of the close of trade yesterday, the Medical - Biomedical and Genetics industry held an average PEG ratio of 1.76.
The Medical - Biomedical and Genetics industry is part of the Medical sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 95, which puts it in the top 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.
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 ReportThis article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).
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