U.S. Capital Wealth Advisors LLC Invests $115,000 in AstraZeneca PLC (NASDAQ:AZN)

Posted by Defense World Staff on Apr 30th, 2023

U.S. Capital Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new stake in AstraZeneca PLC (NASDAQ:AZN – Get Rating) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor bought 1,703 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $115,000.

Other large investors have also modified their holdings of the company. J.W. Cole Advisors Inc. raised its stake in shares of AstraZeneca by 26.3% in the third quarter. J.W. Cole Advisors Inc. now owns 4,983 shares of the company’s stock valued at $273,000 after purchasing an additional 1,038 shares in the last quarter. Foster Victor Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new position in AstraZeneca during the fourth quarter worth $239,000. ARGI Investment Services LLC raised its stake in AstraZeneca by 2.6% during the fourth quarter. ARGI Investment Services LLC now owns 7,261 shares of the company’s stock worth $492,000 after acquiring an additional 187 shares in the last quarter. JGP Global Gestao de Recursos Ltda. raised its stake in AstraZeneca by 11.1% during the third quarter. JGP Global Gestao de Recursos Ltda. now owns 9,731 shares of the company’s stock worth $534,000 after acquiring an additional 971 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Tudor Investment Corp Et Al acquired a new position in AstraZeneca during the third quarter worth $5,087,000. 16.42% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have issued reports on AZN. BMO Capital Markets began coverage on AstraZeneca in a research note on Thursday, January 5th. They set an “outperform” rating for the company. Morgan Stanley upgraded AstraZeneca from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 11th. Berenberg Bank increased their price objective on AstraZeneca from GBX 118 ($1.47) to GBX 126 ($1.57) in a research note on Wednesday, January 18th. Finally, StockNews.com started coverage on AstraZeneca in a research note on Thursday, March 16th. They set a “strong-buy” rating for the company. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating, four have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $126.00.

AstraZeneca Price Performance

Shares of AZN stock opened at $73.22 on Friday. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $68.89 and its 200-day moving average is $68.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.62, a quick ratio of 0.68 and a current ratio of 0.86. The stock has a market capitalization of $226.96 billion, a PE ratio of 48.17, a PEG ratio of 1.51 and a beta of 0.52. AstraZeneca PLC has a 52 week low of $52.65 and a 52 week high of $76.56.

AstraZeneca (NASDAQ:AZN – Get Rating) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, February 9th. The company reported $0.69 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.68 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $11.21 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $11.40 billion. AstraZeneca had a return on equity of 28.81% and a net margin of 10.73%. Equities research analysts expect that AstraZeneca PLC will post 3.64 EPS for the current fiscal year.

AstraZeneca Increases Dividend

The company 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 is a boost from AstraZeneca’s previous semi-annual dividend of $0.47. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, February 23rd. This represents a yield of 2%. AstraZeneca’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 126.97%.

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.