Astrazeneca (AZN) closed at $94.01 in the latest trading session, marking a -1.21% move from the prior day. This move lagged the S&P 500's daily gain of 0.01%. Elsewhere, the Dow gained 0.55%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq lost 0.44%.
The pharmaceutical's shares have seen an increase of 3.99% over the last month, surpassing the Medical sector's gain of 2.01% and the S&P 500's gain of 0.86%.
Investors will be eagerly watching for the performance of Astrazeneca in its upcoming earnings disclosure. The company is expected to report EPS of $1.09, up 3.81% from the prior-year quarter. Alongside, our most recent consensus estimate is anticipating revenue of $15.76 billion, indicating a 5.81% upward movement from the same quarter last year.
For the entire fiscal year, the Zacks Consensus Estimates are projecting earnings of $4.59 per share and a revenue of $58.77 billion, representing changes of +11.68% and 0%, respectively, from the prior year.
Investors should also take note of any recent adjustments to analyst estimates for Astrazeneca. These latest adjustments often mirror the shifting dynamics of short-term business patterns. Consequently, upward revisions in estimates express analysts' positivity towards the business operations and its ability to generate profits.
Our research suggests that these changes in estimates have a direct relationship with upcoming stock price performance. To benefit from this, we have developed the Zacks Rank, a proprietary model which takes these estimate changes into account and provides an actionable rating system.
The Zacks Rank system, stretching from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), has a noteworthy track record of outperforming, validated by third-party audits, with stocks rated #1 producing an average annual return of +25% since the year 1988. Over the past month, there's been a 0.17% rise in the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate. Astrazeneca presently features a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).
From a valuation perspective, Astrazeneca is currently exchanging hands at a Forward P/E ratio of 18.46. Its industry sports an average Forward P/E of 22.11, so one might conclude that Astrazeneca is trading at a discount comparatively.
Also, we should mention that AZN has a PEG ratio of 1.57. This metric is used similarly to the famous P/E ratio, but the PEG ratio also takes into account the stock's expected earnings growth rate. The Medical - Biomedical and Genetics industry currently had an average PEG ratio of 1.56 as of yesterday's close.
The Medical - Biomedical and Genetics industry is part of the Medical sector. With its current Zacks Industry Rank of 107, this industry ranks in the top 44% of all industries, numbering over 250.
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.
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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AstraZeneca PLC (AZN): Free Stock Analysis ReportThis article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).
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