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The most recent trading session ended with Astrazeneca (AZN) standing at $66.26, reflecting a -0.39% shift from the previouse trading day's closing. This move was narrower than the S&P 500's daily loss of 1.11%. Meanwhile, the Dow lost 0.77%, and the Nasdaq, a tech-heavy index, lost 1.49%.
The pharmaceutical's stock has dropped by 1.01% in the past month, exceeding the Medical sector's loss of 4.56% and lagging the S&P 500's gain of 0.4%.
The investment community will be paying close attention to the earnings performance of Astrazeneca in its upcoming release. The company is forecasted to report an EPS of $1.06, showcasing a 45.21% upward movement from the corresponding quarter of the prior year. Alongside, our most recent consensus estimate is anticipating revenue of $14.26 billion, indicating a 18.57% upward movement from the same quarter last year.
In terms of the entire fiscal year, the Zacks Consensus Estimates predict earnings of $4.11 per share and a revenue of $53.35 billion, indicating changes of +13.22% and +16.46%, respectively, from the former year.
Investors should also note any recent changes to analyst estimates for Astrazeneca. These revisions help to show the ever-changing nature of near-term business trends. As such, positive estimate revisions reflect analyst optimism about the company's business and profitability.
Empirical research indicates that these revisions in estimates have a direct correlation with impending stock price performance. 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.
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 past month, there's been a 0.41% rise in the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate. Astrazeneca presently features a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).
Looking at valuation, Astrazeneca is presently trading at a Forward P/E ratio of 16.18. This represents a premium compared to its industry's average Forward P/E of 13.89.
Also, we should mention that AZN has a PEG ratio of 1.19. 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 average PEG ratio for the Large Cap Pharmaceuticals industry stood at 1.47 at the close of the market yesterday.
The Large Cap Pharmaceuticals industry is part of the Medical sector. With its current Zacks Industry Rank of 138, this industry ranks in the bottom 46% of all industries, numbering over 250.