AstraZeneca PLC (NASDAQ:AZN) to Post Q1 2023 Earnings of $0.81 Per Share, SVB Leerink Forecasts

Posted by on Apr 28th, 2023

AstraZeneca PLC (NASDAQ:AZN – Get Rating) – Research analysts at SVB Leerink dropped their Q1 2023 earnings estimates for AstraZeneca in a research report issued on Tuesday, April 25th. SVB Leerink analyst A. Berens now expects that the company will post earnings per share of $0.81 for the quarter, down from their previous estimate of $0.82. The consensus estimate for AstraZeneca’s current full-year earnings is $3.65 per share.

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

AstraZeneca Stock Up 0.2 %

AZN opened at $73.78 on Thursday. AstraZeneca has a fifty-two week low of $52.65 and a fifty-two week high of $76.56. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.62, a current ratio of 0.86 and a quick ratio of 0.68. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $68.73 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $67.98. The company has a market capitalization of $228.70 billion, a P/E ratio of 68.95, a P/E/G ratio of 1.53 and a beta of 0.52.

AstraZeneca (NASDAQ:AZN – Get Rating) last posted 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. AstraZeneca had a net margin of 7.42% and a return on equity of 28.63%. The firm had revenue of $11.21 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $11.40 billion.

AstraZeneca Increases Dividend

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

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in AZN. Fairfield Bush & CO. bought a new position in shares of AstraZeneca in the first quarter valued at about $28,000. Panagora Asset Management Inc. increased its position in AstraZeneca by 55.1% in the first quarter. Panagora Asset Management Inc. now owns 11,956 shares of the company’s stock worth $793,000 after purchasing an additional 4,249 shares during the period. BlackRock Inc. increased its position in AstraZeneca by 22.0% in the first quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 7,466,492 shares of the company’s stock worth $495,328,000 after purchasing an additional 1,343,939 shares during the period. Great West Life Assurance Co. Can increased its position in AstraZeneca by 102.7% in the first quarter. Great West Life Assurance Co. Can now owns 525 shares of the company’s stock worth $36,000 after purchasing an additional 266 shares during the period. Finally, Moors & Cabot Inc. increased its position in AstraZeneca by 2.8% in the first quarter. Moors & Cabot Inc. now owns 10,841 shares of the company’s stock worth $719,000 after purchasing an additional 292 shares during the period. 16.42% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

About AstraZeneca

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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.

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Earnings History and Estimates for AstraZeneca (NASDAQ:AZN)

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