Astrazeneca (AZN) Dips More Than Broader Markets: What You Should Know

Astrazeneca (AZN) closed the most recent trading day at $52.48, moving -1.11% from the previous trading session. This change lagged the S&P 500's daily loss of 0.3%. Meanwhile, the Dow lost 0.8%, and the Nasdaq, a tech-heavy index, added 0.64%.

Prior to today's trading, shares of the pharmaceutical had lost 3.07% over the past month. This has lagged the Medical sector's loss of 0.32% and the S&P 500's gain of 3.25% in that time.

Investors will be hoping for strength from AZN as it approaches its next earnings release, which is expected to be November 5, 2020. On that day, AZN is projected to report earnings of $0.49 per share, which would represent a year-over-year decline of 2%. Meanwhile, our latest consensus estimate is calling for revenue of $6.53 billion, up 1.94% from the prior-year quarter.

For the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates are projecting earnings of $2.02 per share and revenue of $26.31 billion, which would represent changes of +15.43% and +7.89%, respectively, from the prior year.

Investors should also note any recent changes to analyst estimates for AZN. These revisions help to show the ever-changing nature of near-term business trends. With this in mind, we can consider positive estimate revisions a sign of optimism about the company's business outlook.

Research indicates that these estimate revisions are directly correlated with near-term share price momentum. 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 ranges from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell). It has a remarkable, outside-audited track record of success, with #1 stocks delivering an average annual return of +25% since 1988. The Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 0.59% lower within the past month. AZN currently has a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).

Valuation is also important, so investors should note that AZN has a Forward P/E ratio of 26.32 right now. This represents a premium compared to its industry's average Forward P/E of 14.03.

It is also worth noting that AZN currently has a PEG ratio of 1.59. The PEG ratio is similar to the widely-used P/E ratio, but this metric also takes the company's expected earnings growth rate into account. The Large Cap Pharmaceuticals was holding an average PEG ratio of 1.97 at yesterday's closing price.

The Large Cap Pharmaceuticals industry is part of the Medical sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 193, putting it in the bottom 24% of all 250+ industries.

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.

Be sure to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and many more, on Zacks.com.

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