AstraZeneca (NASDAQ:AZN) Reaches New 1-Year High at $76.56

Posted by Defense World Staff on Apr 27th, 2023

AstraZeneca PLC (NASDAQ:AZN – Get Rating)’s share price hit a new 52-week high during trading on Tuesday . The company traded as high as $76.56 and last traded at $76.26, with a volume of 636880 shares changing hands. The stock had previously closed at $75.81.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

AZN has been the topic of a number of research reports. Berenberg Bank boosted their price target on AstraZeneca from GBX 118 ($1.47) to GBX 126 ($1.57) in a report on Wednesday, January 18th. StockNews.com initiated coverage on AstraZeneca in a report on Thursday, March 16th. They set a “strong-buy” rating on the stock. BMO Capital Markets initiated coverage on AstraZeneca in a report on Thursday, January 5th. They set an “outperform” rating on the stock. Finally, Morgan Stanley upgraded AstraZeneca from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 11th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating, four have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, AstraZeneca currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $126.00.

AstraZeneca Stock Down 2.7 %

The firm has a market cap of $228.29 billion, a P/E ratio of 68.83, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.53 and a beta of 0.52. The company has a quick ratio of 0.68, a current ratio of 0.86 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.62. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $68.56 and a 200-day moving average of $67.95.

AstraZeneca (NASDAQ:AZN – Get Rating) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 9th. The company reported $0.69 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.68 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $11.21 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $11.40 billion. AstraZeneca had a return on equity of 28.63% and a net margin of 7.42%. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that AstraZeneca PLC will post 3.65 earnings per share for the current year.

AstraZeneca Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a semi-annual dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 27th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 24th were given a dividend of $0.985 per share. This represents a yield of 2%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, February 23rd. This is an increase from AstraZeneca’s previous semi-annual dividend of $0.47. AstraZeneca’s payout ratio is 180.38%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On AstraZeneca

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of AZN. Jennison Associates LLC increased its position in AstraZeneca by 205.8% during the first quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 16,190,155 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,123,759,000 after buying an additional 10,895,302 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of AstraZeneca in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $254,290,000. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership grew its position in shares of AstraZeneca by 2,180.1% in the fourth quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 3,918,543 shares of the company’s stock valued at $265,677,000 after purchasing an additional 3,746,688 shares during the last quarter. Artisan Partners Limited Partnership acquired a new position in shares of AstraZeneca in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $150,994,000. Finally, Edmp Inc. grew its position in shares of AstraZeneca by 6,480.7% in the fourth quarter. Edmp Inc. now owns 1,611,818 shares of the company’s stock valued at $23,766,000 after purchasing an additional 1,587,325 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 16.42% of the company’s stock.

About AstraZeneca

(Get Rating)

AstraZeneca Plc is a holding company, which engages in the research, development, manufacture, and commercialization of prescription medicines. The company was founded on June 17, 1992 and is headquartered in Cambridge, the United Kingdom.